WE DON’T NEED ANOTHER GEORGE W. BUSH!

By Chuck Baldwin

Constitution Party 2008 Presidential Candidate

Last Saturday, Texas Governor Rick Perry unofficially launched his 2012 Presidential candidacy in Houston (in my opinion). Speculation is he will officially announce his intentions this weekend in South Carolina. If he does declare his candidacy, many election-watchers say Perry will become the GOP frontrunner, due to an extremely weak field of declared candidates. If Perry does declare his candidacy, everyone will know that the Houston event was staged for the purpose of launching his Presidential bid, rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding.

If Perry declares his candidacy (and I’m confident he will), people should also realize that the Houston event was a precursor to the type of campaign that Perry will use throughout the Republican primary season. As a fellow Texan, it was not lost on Rick Perry how George W. Bush obtained the Republican nomination--and eventually the White House. In short, Rick Perry is going to use the G.W. Bush model to win a Presidential election.

Think about it: G.W. Bush won the White House after an extremely unpopular liberal Democrat had been President. Barack Obama’s popularity is even lower than Bill Clinton’s was--and Clinton was only the second President in US history to ever be impeached! Bush’s campaign boss, Karl Rove, brilliantly painted G.W. Bush as being a wholesome "born again Christian," which played very well with a Christian electorate that was tired of being embarrassed by a lying, philandering reprobate living in the White House.

In 2012, the American electorate, especially the Christian electorate… Read on

Source: Constitution Party

Libertarian Party: Please Donate For Ballot Access

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Will you donate to help fund ballot access petition drives in New Hampshire and South Dakota?

We're starting these petition drives for full party access early so we can get them out of the way efficiently before the frantic peak period in 2012. Most states don't allow us to start this early.

The Libertarian National Committee recently approved $28,000 for New Hampshire and $22,000 for South Dakota. Those state parties will kick in additional funds, and they will also have volunteers help collect signatures.

The Libertarian Party is famous for making it onto the ballot time and time again. Having candidates on the ballot is why we get so much publicity compared to other parties like the Green Party and Constitution Party.

Currently, the LP is qualified for the 2012 presidential ballot in 29 states, while the Green Party is on in 16 states, and the Constitution Party in 12 states.

Petitioning is hard work, but we have some great petitioners who collect signatures and also advertise our party as a result.

Please go to LP.org and donate to support these petition drives.

Sincerely,

Wes Benedict

Executive Director

Libertarian National Committee

Constitution Party: Response to the President’s State of the Union Address

By Darrell Castle

Constitution Party Vice-Chairman

[Last week] President Obama delivered his State of the Union address, as he is required by the Constitution to do once each year. Although he covered many different areas, he concentrated on only three: the domestic economy, which includes what he called job creation, domestic policy topics such as education and energy, and foreign policy, which includes military and defense issues.

The President told us that the nation is doing well economically and is on its way to recovery from recession. Evidence of this recovery, according to the President, is the “booming stock market.”

My response is that it is utterly ridiculous to say that we are well into recovery because the stock market is booming. Tell that news to the 43 million plus who have to use food stamps to eat. Tell that to the 15 million plus unemployed people. That number would be much higher than 15 million if the government kept honest numbers and counted the people who are no longer looking for jobs. Tell that to the millions of underemployed who used to have good jobs in manufacturing with benefits and who now work in service-related jobs with no benefits.

The President said that we can’t live in the past with regard to our economy. For example, it used to take about 1000 jobs to operate a steel mill, but now it only takes 100, so we must adjust to that reality and innovate. What he didn’t say is that any jobs in steel are being performed in Korea and other countries and no amount of innovation will change that.

What then is the answer to our economic problems? First, do no more harm with bailouts. Stop all bailouts and recover any money previously committed to bailouts that has not already been spent. Withdraw from all so-called free trade agreements such as NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, and GATT which have been largely responsible for the destruction of America’s manufacturing base. Remove the regulations and restrictions that prevent businesses from doing business in America and from hiring the people they need to make the things that people want to buy.

Finally, the economy cannot recover until the debt and deficit are resolved through de-leveraging of debt and control of spending.  Stop spending more than you take in. It is a simple concept that Americans understand but that apparently their politicians don’t. Once the debt and deficit are under control, the President should endeavor to drive a stake through the heart of the entire Federal Reserve system and return to a monetary system based on sound money principles. Stop the destruction of our currency immediately.

The President also told us that educationally we are doing well, but we can do better, so he launched a program called Race to the Top in all fifty states to replace No Child Left Behind. This is also total nonsense. The United States continues to lag behind other nations in math, science, and reading skills. Our system of education, controlled and paid for by the federal government, is a failure and should be scrapped and replaced with state and local control, with primary responsibility left to parents. There is no role for the federal government in education whatsoever.

The nation’s energy needs could be met largely by domestic production if we were to allow our own domestic sources of energy to be exploited by repeal of harmful laws that unnecessarily restrain production. Technology will now allow energy exploration and production with minimal damage to the environment.  This would prevent the US government from exploring for oil in the Middle East through military force and help foster a more peaceful world.

Finally, the President talked about “shaping” a better world through strengthening NATO and rebuilding our relationship with Russia. He stated that 100,000 of our troops have come home from Iraq with their heads held high. That is also complete nonsense. It’s not his job to shape the world, it’s his job to protect and defend the Constitution and the American people. Many of those 100,000 troops didn’t come home but went to Afghanistan instead. Thousands of others did come home but in boxes or in rehab hospitals.

What then is the foreign policy answer? Issue an order to General Patraeus and the other commanders to execute an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. Then order a military withdrawal from the other 100 nations around the world where we have over 700 foreign bases. That would save many lives, much money, and would create far fewer enemies than we are creating now.

We simply must stop acting as if we own the world or as if we are responsible for it. That would not be isolationism but instead a lack of military domination. The US would trade with all nations who were willing to trade with us. Creditor nations would probably appreciate our new monetary policy whereby they were paid with real instead of counterfeit money.

If the President were to dedicate himself to the ideas proposed in this response to his speech, we would be well on our way to the most dynamic period in American history.

Source: Constitution Party

Is the Cold War Back On?

By Darrell Castle

Constitution Party Vice-Chairman

This is the week of the 50th anniversary of President Eisenhower’s famous speech in which he warned the nation to beware of what he called “the military industrial complex.” He was talking about the military leaders joining with leaders of the arms industry for the purpose of expanding their budgets in order to line their own pockets and greatly expand their power over American foreign policy.

President Eisenhower probably remembered the end of WWII, just 15 years before his speech, when the United States stood at the top of world power as no nation had ever stood before. With 12 million men under arms, the only nation with nuclear weapons and a proven disposition to use them, with Europe in ruins and the Soviet Union with millions of dead, who could challenge the United States?

But challenged we were: just five years later we were at war again in Korea, and the Soviet Union also had nuclear weapons. By the time of President Eisenhower’s speech in 1960, we were in a life or death struggle with the Soviet Union for global supremacy. Those of us who lived through that time remember the “missile gap” and the constant stories of how much better Soviet weapons were than ours and how if we didn’t fund, fund, fund, and build, build, build, our civilization would be dead, dead, dead. The entire “free world” depended on the American taxpayer.

The Soviet Union remained a faithful partner in the game until it finally imploded in 1989, but as luck would have it, Islamic fundamentalism was there to pick up the ball and carry it. Twenty years of fighting Islamic fundamentalism have certainly been rewarding for the players, but fighting a bunch of primitive people who live in caves and hovels makes it hard to justify building very many $350 million dollar plus (research and development factored in) F-22 Raptors, especially when the nation is bankrupt. The F-22 production line was, therefore, shut down after 187 were built.

Permanent war fighting has its own set of rewards, but it just doesn’t create the same zeal as a real big iron showdown against a legitimate technologically advanced country. For a short time it looked as if the players of “the great game,” as Zbigniew Brzezinski called it, would have to adjust to only permanent war against Islamic fundamentalism, but they are clever and resourceful.

Lo and behold, along comes China with the J-20 stealth fighter. We are told that China got its stealth technology from Russia which got it from us, but we are also told that most Russian technological systems are junk right now from lack of funding. China debuted its new fighter aircraft just in time for the summit between Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. President Barack Obama and at about the same time that China announced it was moving troops into North Korea. Oh how lucky can one group of people get! Look for the F-22 line to start up any day now, and, in addition, we have the Chinese in Korea again just like 50 years ago.

Well, it will be extremely interesting to see how President Obama handles the summit with China. I am confident that he will handle it as well as he did the START talks with the Russians. The “great game” goes on, but if the dollar loses its reserve status, as now appears inevitable, the players will have to find a way to pay for all their big iron.

Source: Constitution Party

Party Profile: Meet the Constitutionalists

Constitution Party National Platform

We declare the platform of the Constitution Party to be predicated on the principles of The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, and The Bill of Rights.

According to the original intent of the Founding Fathers, these founding documents are the foundation of our Liberty and the Supreme Law of the Land.

The sole purpose of government, as stated in the Declaration of Independence, is to secure our unalienable rights given us by our Creator. When Government grows beyond this scope, it is usurpation, and liberty is compromised.

We believe the major issues we face today are best solved by a renewed allegiance to the original intent of these founding documents.

Selections from the Party Platform

Preamble

The Constitution Party gratefully acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States. We hereby appeal to Him for mercy, aid, comfort, guidance and the protection of His Providence as we work to restore and preserve these United States.

This great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been and are afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.

The goal of the Constitution Party is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries.

The Constitution of these United States provides that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." The Constitution Party supports the original intent of this language. Therefore, the Constitution Party calls on all those who love liberty and value their inherent rights to join with us in the pursuit of these goals and in the restoration of these founding principles.

The U.S. Constitution established a Republic rooted in Biblical law, administered by representatives who are Constitutionally elected by the citizens. In such a Republic all Life, Liberty and Property are protected because law rules.

We affirm the principles of inherent individual rights upon which these United States of America were founded:

•That each individual is endowed by his Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are the rights to life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness;

•That the freedom to own, use, exchange, control, protect, and freely dispose of property is a natural, necessary and inseparable extension of the individual's unalienable rights;

•That the legitimate function of government is to secure these rights through the preservation of domestic tranquility, the maintenance of a strong national defense, and the promotion of equal justice for all;

•That history makes clear that left unchecked, it is the nature of government to usurp the liberty of its citizens and eventually become a major violator of the people's rights; and

•That, therefore, it is essential to bind government with the chains of the Constitution and carefully divide and jealously limit government powers to those assigned by the consent of the governed.

Conscription

US Constitution, 5th Amendment:

"No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

Conscription deprives a person of liberty without due process of law. This is clearly prohibited by the 5th amendment. Conscription is an involuntary taking of a person's labor-which is a form of property-without just compensation as provided by the eminent domain provisions of the 5th amendment.

Compulsory government service is incompatible with individual liberty.

We oppose imposition of the draft, the registration law, compulsory military training or any other form of compulsory government service.

We support a well-trained and highly organized volunteer state home militia, and voluntary Reserve Officer Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) military training in our schools, colleges, and universities.

Education

Since the Constitution grants the Federal Government no authority over Education, the 10th Amendment applies:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

All teaching is related to basic assumptions about God and man. Education as a whole, therefore, cannot be separated from religious faith. The law of our Creator assigns the authority and responsibility of educating children to their parents. Education should be free from all federal government subsidies, including vouchers, tax incentives, and loans, except with respect to veterans.

Because the federal government has absolutely no jurisdiction concerning the education of our children, the United States Department of Education should be abolished; all federal legislation related to education should be repealed. No federal laws subsidizing or regulating the education of children should be enacted. Under no circumstances should the federal government be involved in national teacher certification, educational curricula, textbook selection, learning standards, comprehensive sex education, psychological and psychiatric research testing programs, and personnel.

Because control over education is now being relegated to departments other than the Department of Education, we clarify that no federal agency, department, board, or other entity may exercise jurisdiction over any aspect of children's upbringing. Education, training, and discipline of children are properly placed in the domain of their parents.

We support the unimpeded right of parents to provide for the education of their children in the manner they deem best, including home, private or religious. We oppose all legislation from any level of government that would interfere with or restrict that liberty. We support equitable tax relief for families whose children do not attend government schools.

So that parents need not defy the law by refusing to send their children to schools of which they disapprove, compulsory attendance laws should be repealed.

Gun Control

The 2nd Amendment strictly limits any interference with gun ownership by saying: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The right to bear arms is inherent in the right of self defense, defense of the family, and defense against tyranny, conferred on the individual and the community by our Creator to safeguard life, liberty, and property, as well as to help preserve the independence of the nation.

The right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution; it may not properly be infringed upon or denied.

The Constitution Party upholds the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms. We oppose attempts to prohibit ownership of guns by law-abiding citizens, and stand against all laws which would require the registration of guns or ammunition.

We emphasize that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have them. In such circumstances, the peaceful citizen's protection against the criminal would be seriously jeopardized.

We call for the repeal of all federal firearms legislation, beginning with Federal Firearms Act of 1968.

We call for the rescinding of all executive orders, the prohibition of any future executive orders, and the prohibition of treaty ratification which would in any way limit the right to keep and bear arms.

Source: Constitution-party.net

Poverty Spreads Across America as We Celebrate Christmas

By Darrell Castle

Constitution Party National Committee, Vice-Chairman

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

This week we pause to celebrate the birth of the one who spoke those words in the temple more than 2000 years ago. While contemplating those words amid the celebration, and preparations for celebration, I am reminded that a deepening poverty is spreading across the nation – the same nation, as we are constantly reminded, that is the richest nation on earth.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we now have almost 43 million people who subsist on food stamps. That is a little more than 13% of the entire American population that must have assistance from the government just to buy food. In my home state of Tennessee it’s more than 20% and in Washington D.C., the seat of the nation’s government, it’s more than 21%.

Prices of the things people need most to live – or in other words, the things they can’t live without – such as food and fuel, are soaring.  Based on current Federal Reserve interest rates, we are told there is no inflation in the economy, but those of us who must buy food and fuel know better.

This inflation in food and fuel comes at a time when some 15 million people are unemployed according to U.S. Government (USG) figures, which place the unemployment rate at close to 10%. During the depression years of the 1930’s, the USG used a more honest reporting formula for unemployment. If you did not have a job and were not retired, you were unemployed. If we used that formula today, the rate would be pushing 25%. Now, the unemployed are not counted unless they are actually receiving unemployment benefits.  Could that be the reason the administration fights so hard to continually extend the months of eligibility for benefits?

Many people are very concerned about the deficit now, as well they should be. These people tell us we can’t afford to extend unemployment benefits, we can’t afford Medicare and Medicaid, and we can’t afford Social Security which has now gone negative. We can, however, afford about a trillion dollars a year for wars that nobody can tell us the meaning of. Even the Commander-in-Chief can only say “they’re necessary.” If we can’t afford anything but wars of aggression, it seems to me that we deserve at least an explanation of why.

Oh yes, I almost forgot one other thing that we can afford. We can always afford the trillions – yes that’s right: Mr. Bernanke said he gave trillions to foreign banks and corporations – we can also afford the trillions we gave to American banks and corporations. Goldman Sachs, for example, was provided funds 212 times during the approximate year of the TARP period. That’s almost once every business day.

We’ve seen some of the USG’s priorities then, in relation to what we can and can’t afford. We know that the five largest items, often referred to as mandatory, in the fiscal year 2011 budget take up 100 percent of tax revenue. Those items are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, defense, and interest on the debt. Everything else that is spent must be borrowed. Defense and interest on the debt are clearly affordable, but the others are problematic. The USG has now spent generations creating a totally dependent society and it seems bad form to me for them to then blame the entire mess on the dependent.

All these things taken together add up to a collapsing economy and ultimate doom for the dollar. When the dollar loses reserve status and necessary items, if obtainable at all, skyrocket in price, the picture might not be a pretty one. I wonder if all these economic “mistakes” have occurred purely by accident and stupidity? Aren’t Rhodes Scholars, as well as Harvard, Princeton, and London School of Economics graduates supposed to be smart? If so then, are they fools or knaves?

Those who, through their concerted efforts, have managed in only 100 years to destroy a civilization that took 1000 years to build seem pretty happy and pretty excited right now. Sometimes their gloating is a little hard to take, but I remind you that there is still cause for great joy during this Christmas week. Oh I know they have their dark prince and they hear his voice, but their time and his time are but temporary. The one who spoke the words in the first paragraph of this writing is with us, and he did tell us that he would not leave us or forsake us.

The followers of the dark prince may not realize it, but they are just instruments doing what God has ordained them to do since before the foundations of the world.
Source: Constitution-party.net.