TMOT: Troops, Stand Tall; I’ve Got Your 6, You’ve Got My Support

A touching and heartfelt message to all American troops from Minister Derrick Grayson:

I promise to work towards better post war care, bringing you home, ensuring that if you are in a war, you'll be ACTUALLY fighting to protect or liberate. How? By voting for and supporting honorable politicians. I help do this to you. Please forgive me…

Reader submission: War or Peace?

By Meagan Sharp

Is Iran in 2012 another Iraq like 2003?

First of all, the biggest danger for our country right now is that a president is going to overreact and we are going to end up bombing Iran. If we can live through the cold war, which we did, with 30,000 missiles pointed at us then we should sit back and think and not assume that we are going to be attacked! Look what happened with Libya! ISRAEL has 300 nuclear weapons so why are we making them out to be some poor defenseless nation? We have 45 bases in IRAN (not including submarines)! IRAN can’t even produce enough gasoline for themselves and we're worried about them obtaining ONE weapon? Politicians are building this war up just like they did Iraq. We do not need to get involved in another war people!

As if that crisis wasn’t bad enough, President Obama has made it very clear that he will not only ignore the US Constitution, but will refuse to listen to congress when they don't let him have his way. Obama ignores the US Constitution and Congress when it suits his purposes. He issues edicts without regard to the US Constitution and signs into law unconstitutional acts. He is blatantly inconsistent, and he continues to get your support???

Oh, and for those of you who think he’s saving the economy and lowering unemployment: Our national debt has actually increased since Bush was in office, to be specific, the Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency and has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office. As for unemployment, North Carolina has lost nearly 50,000 jobs since President Obama took office and the unemployment rate is 9.9 percent. In Charlotte, unemployment is even higher, 10 percent. In total, 450,000 North Carolinians are unemployed, up 13 percent since Obama took office and these are just TWO examples.

HOWEVER, just because I am completely against Obama being reelected I want to make it clear that I am just as adamant about Romney NOT being elected either. What Republicans don’t seem to understand is that if Ron Paul is NOT on the ballot, none of his supporters are going to vote for Romney. Ron Paul is the only politician that has a chance of beating Obama. If you vote for Romney and don’t vote for Ron Paul then you can blame yourselves for Obama’s reelection and be prepared for a socialist society.

SO PLEASE, vote for peace, not war; for restraint, not excess; and for civil liberties, not authoritarianism.

RON PAUL 2012.

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LP Chair- Executive Orders And Military Tribunals Are NOT Due Process

WASHINGTON -- Libertarian National Chair, Mark Hinkle, released the following statement today:

“Last month, the joint war on liberty by Republicans and Democrats continued, when Attorney General Eric Holder informed surprised students and faculty at Northwestern University Law School that President Obama can kill anyone in the world without charge or trial. This, of course, is just acceptance of the Unitary Executive Theory which President George W. Bush utilized to ignore the courts during his administration. Needless to say, both Presidents, Bush and Obama, assured us that they would be careful to only use their unlimited powers for the benefit of their subjects.

“Libertarians say this is not good enough. Until recently, most Americans believed that they could not be deprived of their life, liberty or property without due process of law. The very idea of having people judged by a jury of their peers was to limit the ability of politicians to act as if they were monarchs.

“Nowhere is this bipartisan disgrace better demonstrated than in the ongoing saga of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Bush established this camp in January 2002 so that he could claim the prisoners held there were outside US legal jurisdiction. When the Supreme Court rejected that administration’s quaint new category of people who were neither accused criminals, subject to the protections of habeas corpus, nor prisoners of war, subject to the protections of the Geneva Convention, Bush began to use military tribunals in which US military officers operated as both judge and jury.  As Groucho Marx once said, `Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.’

“Conveniently, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 gave Bush both the legislative cover and official acceptance of his newly-minted category of enemy combatant. At that time, most Democrats voted against this law, while in 2008, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama called for regular civilian trials and the closing of Guantanamo. Needless to say, upon election President Obama decided instead to continue both the tribunals and the indefinite detentions at Guantanamo.

“It is far too late to talk about due process for the Guantanamo prisoners. Of the nearly 800 men and boys sent there, most were released after years of imprisonment without ever being charged, let alone convicted of anything. Eight have died in custody. A total of three have been convicted: one for making an anti-American video, one for being a chauffeur for Bin Laden, and one in a vague plea bargain in exchange for his release. Of the remaining 171 detainees, most have already been cleared for release but are still being held. And for the few still awaiting a hearing, the legacy of torture based evidence taints the entire process. Fair trials are impossible at this point.

“Let us end this farce NOW. While no single policy can ever guarantee our safety, we are far more endangered by a government which has justifiably earned the contempt of the world than we are by a few more people running free who are angry at the US. Releasing the innocent is far more important than accidentally keeping a few who might be guilty. Close Guantanamo and restore due process.

Which poses a bigger threat to America? Americans whom politicians claim are a threat? Or the politicians themselves?

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P.S. If you have not already done so, please join the Libertarian Party. We are the only political party with a mission to give voters a choice to downsize Big Government, to do so in the most humane way possible, to greatly reduce taxes, and to slash high government spending. You can also renew your membership. Or, you can simply make a contribution .

Ron Paul: “I’m Trying to Save the Republican Party From Themselves”

Ron Paul had some important things to say (as usual) on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday morning. Many Republicans say “I like Ron Paul, except on foreign policy.” But guess what? It is precisely on foreign policy where a majority of Americans now agree with Paul. Reported The Christian Science Monitor:

“The truth is, I’m trying to save the Republican Party from themselves because they want perpetual wars; they don’t care about presidents who assassinate American citizens; they don’t care about searching our houses without search warrants,” Paul said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday.

In fact, many Americans also find troubling current government policy regarding warrantless searches and killing American citizens who have aligned themselves with terrorists bent on attacking the US.

But it is the war that’s gone on for more than 10 years in Afghanistan… where the public’s agreement with Paul seems most evident.

“Support for the war in Afghanistan has dropped sharply among both Republicans andDemocrats,” the New York Times reported this past week.

The assertion is based on the latest New York Times/CBS poll, which finds that opposition to the war jumped from 53 percent four months ago to 69 percent today.

Weariness with the war crosses party lines. While Republicans are more inclined to support the war, 60 percent say the war is going very or somewhat badly, and only about 30 percent of Republicans surveyed said the US should stay in Afghanistan…

In a floor speech in the House of Representatives recently, Paul warned that if the US isn’t out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, “we’ll be there for another decade.”

“The American people are now with us,” he said, and on that point he’s increasingly correct.

Republican candidates like Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich differ very little from the George W. Bush approach to foreign policy, and President Obama also has differed little on foreign policy from his predecessor. Americans are understandably war weary, and many feel they have nowhere to go.

Republicans who say “I like Ron Paul, except on foreign policy” better start considering Paul’s foreign policy views. Because without them, a majority of Americans might be saying “I like the Republican Party, except on foreign policy” in 2012 and beyond.

Source: Paulitical Ticker with Jack Hunter

Ron Paul Responds to Comments by Defense Secretary

“The recent statements by Defense Secretary Panetta once again illustrate the Obama administration’s blatant disregard for the rule of law and our U.S. Constitution”

LAKE JACKSON, Texas – Today Congressman and 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul issued the following statement in response to comments by Obama Defense Secretary Leon Panetta regarding military options in Syria. See comments below.

“Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent statements once again illustrate the Obama administration’s blatant disregard for the rule of law and our Constitution.

“For President Obama’s head of the Defense Department to state that international permission, rather than congressional approval, is what would be needed as a legal basis to initiate a no-fly zone over Syria flies in the face of the guidelines established by our Founders.

“There is no issue more serious than war.  And make no mistake, establishing a ‘no-fly zone’ is in itself an act of war.

“Our Founders understood that waging war is not something that should be taken lightly, which is why Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution gives Congress – not the President – the authority to declare war.

“This was meant to be an important check on presidential power.  The last thing the Founders wanted was an out-of-control Executive Branch engaging in unnecessary and unpopular wars without so much as a congressional debate.

“But such actions should no longer come as a surprise.  During the conflict in Libya last year, we saw exactly what this President thinks of following the rule of law. President Obama consulted NATO, the United Nations, and the Arab League for permission and authorization to use US military force against Libya.  But he utterly ignored the one body that has the legal authority to grant that permission—the U.S. Congress.  That was, and still is, unacceptable.

“This is a complete 180 from what we once heard when Obama was seeking the presidency, as he spoke passionately about the abuses of the Bush Administration in violating the War Powers Act.  But, like many candidates, the rhetoric did not match the disappointing reality of what he would do as President.

“I have fought my entire political career for greater transparency, greater accountability, and strict adherence to the Constitution.  If elected President, I pledge to always maintain the sovereignty of the United States and remain faithful to our rule of law.”