The "Land of the Free" has become the world's leading jailer. The following article shows how and why tyranny is rising at an alarming rate in the US. Long article, and not comfortable reading, but very important to those interested in freedom. --Paul Stout
I don't generally post anything this lengthy and this controversial, but decided to do
so in this case. This was a well researched piece and is a well needed
"wake-up" call to those who still hold to the myth that America is the Land of
the free and the home of the brave. I disagree with the Author's conclusions, but
this very troubling report underscores just how bad things have gotten in America and how
very difficult it is going to be to reverse our Government's direction towards total
tyranny. Unfortunately, we can't even begin to stop this insanity until those who
are being oppressed start to realize what has been done to them... and by then, it may be
too late, as the Author is suggesting. -- Frank Saxton
========================================================
AMERIKA, AMERIKA
("Land-Mine" Legislation)
by Claire Wolfe
[by permission; see notice at end]
Let me run by you a brief list of items that are "the law" in America today. As
you read, consider what all these have in common.
1. A national database of employed people. [See notes at end of article.]
2. 100 pages of new "health-care crimes", for which the penalty is (among other
things) seizure of assets from both doctors and patients.
3. Confiscation of assets from any American who establishes foreign citizenship.
4. The largest gun confiscation act in US history -- which is also an
unconstitutional ex-post-facto law and the first law ever to remove people's
constitutional rights for committing a misdemeanor.
5. A law banning guns in ill-defined school zones; random roadblocks may be used for
enforcement; gun-bearing residents could become federal criminals just by stepping outside
their doors or getting into vehicles.
6. Increased funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, an agency infamous
for its brutality, dishonesty, and ineptitude.
7. A law enabling the executive branch to declare various groups "terrorists" --
without stating any reason and without the possibility of appeal. Once a group has been so
declared, its mailing and membership lists must be turned over to the government.
8. A law authorizing secret trials with secret evidence for certain classes of people.
9. A law requiring that all states begin issuing drivers licenses carrying Social Security
numbers and "security features" (such as magnetically coded fingerprints and
personal records) by October 1, 2000. By October 1, 2006, "Neither the Social
Security Administration or the Passport Office or any other Federal agency or any State or
local government agency may accept for any evidentiary purpose a State's license or
identification document in a form other than [one issued vith a verified Social Security
number and 'security features']."
10. And my personal favorite -- a national database, now being constructed, that will
contain every exchange and observation that takes place in your doctor's office. This
includes records of your prescriptions, your hemorrhoids, and your mental illness. It also
includes -- by law -- any statements you make ("Doc, I'm worried my kid may be on
drugs... Doc, I've been so stressed out lately I feel about ready to go postal...")
and any observations your doctor makes about your mental or physical condition, whether
accurate or not, whether made with you knowledge or not. For the time being, there will be
zero (count 'em, zero) privacy safeguards on this data. But don't worry, your government
will protect you with some undefined "privacy standards" in a few years.
All of the above items are the law of the land. Federal law. What else do they have in
common?
Well, when I ask this question to audiences, I usually get the answer, "They're all
unconstitutional." True.
My favorite answer came from an eloquent college student who blurted, "They all
SUUUCK!" Also true.
But the saddest and most telling answer is: They were all the product of the 104th
Congress. Every one of the horrors above was imposed upon you by the Congress of the
Republican-Revulation -- the Congress that pledged to "get government off your
back".
BURYING TIME BOMBS
All of the above became law by being buried in larger bills. In many cases, they are
hidden sneak attacks upon individual liberties that were neither debated on the floor of
Congress nor reported in the media.
For instance, three of the most horrific items (the health care database, asset
confiscation for foreign residency, and the 100 pages of health care crimes) were hidden
in the Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HR
3103). You didn't hear about them at the time because the media was too busy celebrating
this moderate, compromise bill that "simply" ensured that no American would ever
lose insurance coverage due to a job change or a pre-existing condition.
Your legislator may not have heard about them, either. Because he or she didn't care
enough to do so. The fact is, most legislators don't even read the laws they inflict upon
the public. They read to title of the bill (which may be something like "The Save the
Sweet Widdle Babies From Gun Violence Act of 1984"). They read summaries, which are
often prepared by the very agencies or groups pushing the bill. And they vote according to
various deals or pressures.
It also sometimes happens that the most horrible provisions are sneaked into bills during
conference committee negotiations, after both House and Senate have voted on their
separate versions of the bills. The conference committee process is supposed simply to
reconcile differences between two versions of a bill. But power brokers use it for
purposes of their own, adding what they wish. Then members of the House and Senate vote on
the final, unified version of the bill, often in a great rush, and often without even
having the amended text available for review.
I have even heard (though I cannot verify) that stealth provisions were written into some
bills after all the voting had taken place. Someone with a hidden agenda simply edits them
to suit his or her own purposes. So these time bombs become "law" without ever
having been voted on by anybody. And who's to know?
If congress people don't even read legislation before they vote on it, why would they
bother reading it afterward? Are power brokers capable of such chicanery? Do we even
need to ask? Is the computer system in which bills are stored vulnerable to tampering by
people within or outside of Congress? We certainly should ask.
Whether your legislators were ignorant of the infamy they were perpetrating, or whether
they knew, one thing is absolutely certain: the Constitution, your legislator's oath to
it, and your inalienable rights (which precede the Constitution) never entered into
anyone's consideration.
Ironically, you may recall that one of the early pledges of Newt Gingrich & Company
was to stop these stealth attacks. Very early in the 104th Congress, the Republican
leadership declared that henceforth all bills would deal only with the subject matter
named in the title of the bill. When, at the beginning of the first session of the
104th, pro-gun Republicans attempted to attach a repeal of the "assault weapons"
ban to another bill, House leaders dismissed their amendment as not being
"germane".
After that self-righteous and successful attempt to prevent pro-freedom stealth
legislation, Congress people turned right around and got back to the dirty old business of
practicing all the anti-freedom stealth they were capable of.
STEALTH ATTACKS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
Three other items on my list (BATF funding, gun confiscation, and school-zone roadblocks)
were also buried in a big bill: HR 3610, the budget appropriation passed near the end of
the second session of the 104th Congress. No legislator can claim to have been
unaware of these three because they were brought to public attention by gun-rights groups
and hotly debated in both Congress and the media. Yet some 90% of all congress
people voted for them, including many who claim to be ardent protectors of the rights
guaranteed by the Second Amendment. Why?
Well, in the case of my wrapped-in-the-flag, allegedly pro-gun, Republican congress
person: "Bill Clinton made me do it!"
Okay, I paraphrased. What she actually said was more like, "It was part of a budget
appropriations package. The public got mad at us for shutting the government in 1994.
If we hadn't voted for this budget bill, they might have elected a Democratic
legislature in 1996 -- and you wouldn't want THAT, would you?" Oh heavens, no; I'd
much rather be enslaved by people who spell their name with an "R" than people
who spell their name with a "D". Makes all the difference in the world!
HOW SNEAK ATTACKS ARE JUSTIFIED
The Republicans are fond of claiming that Bill Clinton "forced" them to pass
certain legislation by threatening to veto anything they sent to the White House that
didn't meet his specs. In other cases (as with the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill), they proudly
proclaim their misdeeds in the name of bipartisanship -- while carefully forgetting to
mention the true nature of what theyt are doing.
In still others, they trumpet their triumph over the evil Democrats and claim the mantle
of limited government while sticking it to us and to the Constitution. The national
database of workers was in the welfare-reform bill they "forced" Clinton to
accept. The requirement for SS numbers and ominous "security" devices on drivers
licenses originated in their very own Immigration Control & Financial Responsibility
Act of 1996, HR 2202.
Another common trick, called to my attention by Redmon Barbry, publisher of the electronic
magazine 'Fratricide', is to hide duplicate or near-duplicate provisions in several bills.
Then, when the Supreme Court declares Section A of Law Z to be unconstitutional, its
kissing cousin, Section B of Law Y, remains to rule us.
Sometimes this particular form of trickery is done even more brazenly: when the Supreme
Court, in its Lopez decision, declared federal-level school zone gun bans unconstitutional
because Congress demonstrated no jurisdiction, Congress brassily changed a few words. They
claimed that school zones fell under the heading of "interstate commerce". Then
they sneaked the provision into HR 3610, where it became "law" once again.
When angry voters upbraid congress people about some Big Brotherish horror they've
inflicted upon the country by stealth, they claim lack of knowledge, lack of time, party
pressure, public pressure, or they justify themselves by claiming that the rest of the
bill was "good".
The simple fact is that, regardless of what reasons legislators may claim, the US Congress
has passed more Big Brother legislation in the last two years -- more laws to enable
tracking, spying, and controlling -- than any Democratic Congress ever passed. And they
have done it, in large part, in secret.
Redmon Barbry put it best: "We the people have the right to expect our elected
representatives to read, comprehend, and master the bills they vote on. If this means
Congress passes only 50 bills per session instead of 5000, so be it. As far as I am
concerned, whoever subverts this process is committing treason." By whatever means
the deed is done, there is no acceptable excuse for voting against the Constitution,
voting for tyranny. And I would add to Redmon's comments: Those who do read the bills,
then knowingly vote to ravage our liberties, are doubly guilty. But when do the
treason trials begin?
BILLS AS WINDOW DRESSING FOR AN UGLY AGENDA
The truth is that these tiny, buried provisions are often the real intent of the law, and
that the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pages that surround them are sometimes nothing
more than elaborate window dressing. These tiny time bombs are placed there at the behest
of federal police agencies or other power groups whose agenda is not clearly visible to
us. And their impact is felt long after the outward intent of the bill has been forgotten.
Civil forfeiture -- now one of the plagues of the nation, was first introduced in the
1970s as one of those buried, almost unnoticed provisions of a larger law. One wonders why
on earth a "health care bill" carried a provision to confiscate the assets of
people who became frightened or discouraged enough to leave the country. (In fact, the
entire bill was an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code. Go figure.)
I think we all realize by now that the database of employed people will still be around
enabling the government to track our locations (and heaven knows what else, about us, as
the database is enhanced and expanded) long after the touted benefits of "welfare
reform" have failed to materialize.
And most grimly of all, our drivers licenses will be our de facto national ID card long
after immigrants have ceased to want to come to this Land Of The Once Free.
CONTROL REIGNS
It matters not one whit whether the people controlling you call themselves R's or D's,
liberals or conservatives, socialists or even (I hate to admit it) libertarians. It
doesn't matter whether they vote for these horrors because they're not paying attention,
or because they actually like such things.
What matters is that the pace of totalitarianism is increasing. And it is coming closer to
our daily lives all the time.
Once your state passes the enabling legislation (under threat of losing "federal
welfare dollars"), it is YOUR name and Social Security Number that will be entered in
that employee database the moment you go to work for a new employer. It is YOU who will be
unable to cash a check, board an airplane, get a passport or be allowed any dealings with
any government agency if you refuse to give your SS number to the drivers license bureau.
It is YOU who will be endangered by driving "illegally" if you refuse to submit
to Big Brother's procedures.
It is YOU whose psoriasis, manic depression, or prostate troubles will soon be the reading
matter of any bureaucrat with a computer. It is YOU who could be declared a member of a
"foreign terrorist" organization just because you bought a book or concert
tickets from some group the government doesn't like. It is YOU who could lose your home,
bank account, and reputation because you made a mistake on a health-insurance form.
Finally, when you become truly desperate for freedom, it is YOU whose assets will be
seized if you try to flee this increasingly insane country.
As Ayn Rand said in 'Atlas Shrugged', "There's no way to rule innocent men. The only
power government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't
enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it
becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws."
It's time to drop any pretense. We are no longer law- abiding citizens. We have lost our
law-abiding status. There are simply too many laws to abide. And because of increasingly
draconian penalties and electronic tracking mechanisms, our "law-breaking"
places us and our families in greater jeopardy every day.
STOPPING RUNAWAY GOVERNMENT
The question is: What are we going to do about it? Write a nice polite letter [to
our congress person? If you think] that'll help, I've got a bridge you might be interested
in buying. (And it isn't your "bridge to the future", either.)
Vote "better people" into office. Oh yeah, that's what you thought we were doing
in 1994.
Work to fight one bad bill or another? Okay. What will you do about the 10 or 20 or 100
equally horrible bills that will be passed behind your back while you were fighting that
little battle? And let's say you defeat a nightmare bill this year. What are you going to
do when they sneak it back in, at the very last minute, in some "omnibus
legislation" next year?
And what about the horrors you don't even hear about until two or three years after they
become law? Should you try fighting these laws in the courts? Where do you find the
resources? Where do you find a judge who doesn't have a vested interest in bigger, more
powerful government? And again, for every one case decided in favor of freedom, what do
you do about the 10, 20 or 100 in which the courts decide against the Bill of Rights?
Perhaps you'd consider trying to stop the onrush of these horrors with a constitutional
amendment -- maybe one that bans "omnibus" bills, requires that every law meet a
constitutional test, or requires all congress people to sign statements that they've read
and understood every aspect of every bill on which they vote. Good luck! Good luck, first,
on getting such an amendment passed. Then good luck getting our Constitution-scorning
"leaders" to obey it.
It is true that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and part of that vigilance has
been, traditionally, keeping a watchful eye on laws and on lawbreaking lawmakers.
But given the current pace of law-spewing and unconstitutional regulation-writing, you
could watch, plead, and struggle "within the system" 24 hours a day for your
entire life and end up infinitely less free that when you begin. Why throw your life away
on a futile effort?
Face it. If "working within the system" could halt tyranny, the tyrants would
outlaw it. Why do you think they encourage you to vote, to write letters, to talk to them
in public forums? It's to divert your energies. To keep you tame. "The system",
as it presently exists, is nothing but a rat maze. You run around thinking you're getting
somewhere. Your masters occasionally reward you with a little pellet that encouages you to
believe you're accomplishing something. And in the meantime, you are as much their
property and their pawn as if you were a slave.
In the effort of fighting them on their terms and with their authorized and approved
tools, you have given your life's energy to them as surely as if you were toiling in their
cotton fields,under the lash of their overseer.
The only way we're going to get off this road to Hell is if we jump off. If we,
personally, as individuals, refuse to cooperate with evil. How we do that is up to each of
us. I can't decide for you, nor you for me. (Unlike congress people, who think they can
decide for everybody.) But this totalitarian runaway truck is never going to stop unless
we stop it, in any way we can.
Stopping it might include any number of things: tax resistance; public civil disobedience;
wide-scale, silent non-cooperation; highly noisy non-cooperation; boycotts; secession
efforts; monkey wrenching; computer hacking; dirty tricks against government agents;
public shunning of employees of abusive government agencies; alternative, self-sufficient
communities that provide their own medical care and utilities.
There are thousands of avenues to take, and this is something most of us still need to
give more thought to before we can build an effective resistance. We will each choose the
courses that are right for our own circumstances, personalities, and beliefs.
Whatever we do, though, we must remember that we are all, already, outlaws. Not one of us
can be certain of going through a single day without violating some law or regulation
we've never even heard of. We are all guilty in the eyes of today's law. If someone in
power chooses to target us, we can all, already be prosecuted for something.
And I'm sure you know that your claims of "good intentions" won't protect you,
as the similar claims of politicians protect them. Politicians are above the law.
YOU are under it. Crushed under it. When you look at it that way, we have very little left
to lose by breaking laws creatively and purposefully. Yes, some of us will suffer horrible
consequences for our lawbreaking. It is very risky to actively resist unbridled power. It
is especially risky to go public with resistance (unless hundreds of thousands publicly
join us), and it becomes riskier the closer we get to tyranny.
For that reason, among many others, I would never recommend any particular course of
action to anyone -- and I hope you'll think twice before taking "advice" from
anybody about things that could jeopardize your life or well-being. But if we don't
resist in the best ways we know how and if a good number of us don't resist loudly and
publicly -- all of us will suffer the much worse consequences of living under total
oppression.
And whatever courses of action we choose, we must remember that this legislative
"revolution" against "We the People" will not be stopped by
politeness. It will not be stopped by requests. It will not be stopped by "working
within a system" governed by those whe regard us as nothing but cattle. It will not
be stopped by pleading for justice from those who will resort to any degree of trickery or
violence to rule us.
It will not be stopped unless we are willing to risk our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honors to stop it. I think of the words of Winston Churchill: "If you will not
fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when
your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have
to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There
may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance for victory,
because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
NOTES on the laws listed above
1. (Employee database) Welfare Reform Bill, HR 3734; became Public Law 104-193 on 8/22/96;
see Section 453A.
2. (Health care crimes) Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996, HR
3103; became Public Law 104-191 on 8/21/96.
3. (Asset confiscation for citizenship change) Same law as #2; see Sections 511-513.
4, 5, 6. (Anti-gun laws) Omnibus Appropriations Act, HR 3610; became Public Law 104-208 on
9/30/96.
7, 8. (Terrorism and secret trials) Antiterrorism & Effective Death Penalty Act of
1996, S735; became Public Law 104-132 on 4/24/96; see all of Title III, specifically
Sections 302 and 219, also see all of Title IV, specifically Sections 401, 501, 502, and
503.
9. (De facto national ID card) Began life in the Immigration Control & Financial
Responsibility Act of 1996; was eventually folded into the Omnibus Appropriations Act, HR
3610 (which was formerly called the Defense Appropriations Act -- but we wouldn't want to
confuse anyone, here, would we?); became Public Law 104-208 on 9/30/96; see Sections 656
and 657, among others.
10. (Health care database) Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996,
HR 3103; became Public Law 104-191 on 8/21/96; see Sections 262, 263, and 264, among
others. The various provisions that make up the full horror of this database are scattered
throughout the bill and may take hours to track down; this one is stealth legislation at
its utmost sneakiest.
* * *
And one final, final note: Although I spent aggravating hours verifying the specifics of
these bills (a task I swear I will never waste my life on again!), the original list of
bills at the top of this article was NOT the result of extensive research. It was simply
what came off the top of my head when I thought of Big Brotherish bills from the 104th
Congress. For all I know, Congress has passed 10 times more of that sort of thing. In
fact, the worst "law" in the list -- #9, the de facto national ID card -- just
came to my attention as I was writing this essay, thanks to the enormous efforts of Jackie
Juntti and Ed Lyon and others, who researched the law. Think of it: thanks to
congressional stealth tactics, we had the long-dreaded national ID card for five months,
without a whisper of discussion, before freedom activists began to find out about it.
Makes you wonder what else might be lurking out there, doesn't it?
And on that cheery note -- THE END.
(C) Copyrighted by Claire Wolfe.
Permission to reprint freely granted, provided the article is reprinted in full and
that any reprint is accompanied by this announcement.
===========================================================
Reprinted from 'Freedom Network News', July/August 1998
International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL)
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