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by James W. Harris

Nobody Read the Stimulus Bill
 

The massive $787 billion 2009 "stimulus" bill -- possibly the largest spending bill in U.S. history -- was received by all Congressional members at 11 p.m. Thursday evening, February 12.

The gigantic bill was 1,073 pages long, with an additional 421 page Explanatory Statement. Further, portions of the bill consisted of hand-written last-minute insertions. 

As the small-government lobbying group Downsize DC notes, the bill is filled with:
 

* Hand-written copy-editing;
* Insertions scrawled in the margins;
* Typographical deletions of whole paragraphs;
* And "a variety of curious hash marks and other annotations."

Yet a mere 15 hours later, around 4 pm, the U.S. House passed it -- appropriately enough, on Friday 13th.

The Senate passed it just 3 hours and 5 minutes later.

Yes, that's right. Congress passed this complex, far-reaching, revolutionary bill in a matter of hours, without taking enough time to even learn what was in it, let alone read it, or even read most of it.

The conservative Heritage Foundation declared: "[N]ever have we seen a bill more cloaked in secrecy or more withdrawn from open public exposure and honest debate."
 

Downsize DC points out this happened despite:
 

* President Obama's repeated campaign promises of transparency in government, including a pledge not to sign bills that aren't posted online for the public to read for at least five days before the final vote is cast.
 

and:
 

* Speaker Nancy Pelosi's promise that the final version of the stimulus bill would be posted online for at least 48 hours before the vote.
 

 
ACLU, Amnesty International Slam Obama Administration

While fiscal conservatives are outraged about the Obama $787 billion "stimulus" boondoggle, civil libertarians are alarmed at signs that Obama may be backtracking on major civil liberties issues.
 

On February 17 Amnesty International sent out this email alert to supporters:
 

"Last week we got new, startling evidence that the Obama administration may continue the failed Bush policies on torture and illegal detention.
 

"The first blow came last Monday, when a lawyer for the new administration used the same 'state secret' (or national security concerns) argument put forward by the Bush administration in an attempt to dismiss the case of Binyam Mohamed, who was reportedly brutally tortured and detained without charges.
 

"Then on Wednesday, before a key Republican Senator, Solicitor General Nominee Elena Kagan said she believed the government had the legal authority to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely, without charges.
 

"We fear that the Obama administration is feeling intense pressure for its early, bold actions against Guantanamo Bay and torture, and may be compromising to win political allies."
 

The case in question is Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen. A few days earlier the ACLU had expressed similar alarm and outrage. Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU, said:
 

"[New U.S. Attorney General] Eric Holder's Justice Department stood up in court today and said that it would continue the Bush policy of invoking state secrets to hide the reprehensible history of torture, rendition and the most grievous human rights violations committed by the American government. This is not change. This is definitely more of the same. Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama's Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue. If this is a harbinger of things to come, it will be a long and arduous road to give us back an America we can be proud of again."
 

Looks like it's going to be a very interesting political year.
 

71% of Americans Say: Investigate the Bush Administration
 
An extraordinary 71% of Americans support an investigation into the possible misuse of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for partisan political purposes by the Bush administration.
 
63% of Americans support investigating the Bush administration for engaging in illegal wiretapping.
 
And 62% believe the Bush administration should be investigated for the use of torture.
 
That's according to a Gallup poll released this week.
 
Those who want such investigations are divided as to whether there should be criminal investigations, or investigations by a "truth commission" panel offering immunity in exchange for testimony. For example, in the case of the 71% who believe the Bush administration should be investigated for abuse of the DOJ, 41% want a criminal investigation, while 30% are in favor of investigation by an independent panel.
 
President Obama has shied away from endorsing such actions. However, it would appear a large majority of Americans -- indeed, many millions more than those who voted for him -- disagree with Obama on this. Further, within his own party, powerful voices are already acting.
 
A House committee led by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has already issued subpoenas of former Bush administration officials. Several days ago Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) called for a special "truth commission" to be formed.
 
"We need to get to the bottom of what happened and why," Leahy said. "The reason we do that is so that it'll never happen again."
 
For years, critics of the Bush administration have compiled enormous amounts of information arguing that the Bush administration engaged in numerous criminal actions.
 
It increasingly appears they may have a chance to make their arguments in official forums.
 
Obama Quickly Breaks Campaign Tax Promise

Last year, candidate Barack Obama repeatedly pledged that no American earning under $250,000 per year would face any form of tax increase should he be elected.
 
For example, on September 12, 2008, he declared:
 
"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."
However, in early February, just days into his presidency, President Obama signed the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation. This puts into effect a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack.
 
According to Americans for Tax Reform -- a non-partisan coalition of taxpayers and taxpayer groups who oppose all federal and state tax increases -- Obama's new tax increase will be borne largely by the very middle- and low-income Americans he said he would not raise taxes on:
 
* 55 percent of smokers are "working poor";
* One in four smokers live below the poverty line;
* On average, smokers, whose median income is a little more than $36,000, make about 30 percent less than non-smokers.
 
"Obama just raised taxes on millions of lower-income Americans. His central campaign promise was a lie," bluntly declared Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
 
Read my lips, anyone?
 

Government by Phone Book?

A new survey by Rasmussen, the respected polling company, finds that fully forty-four percent (44%) of voters think a group of people selected at random from the phone book would do a better job addressing the nation's problems than the current Congress. 37% disagree. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.
 

We confidently predict the latter two groups will quickly shrink in the months ahead.
 

 ---------------------------------------------

Quick Shots...
 

LEAVE MICHAEL PHELPS ALONE: "(S)moking smoking pot didn't prevent Barack Obama from becoming president. And obviously, recreational marijuana use hasn't harmed Mr. Phelps, whose prodigious performances have garnered 14 gold medals, the most in Olympic history. If he can smoke pot and perform at such a superhuman level, then perhaps we should reconsider the effects of -- and punishments for -- use of the substance." -- Psychologist Stanton Peele, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 5, 2009.
 
INSULT TO INJURY, BAILOUT-STYLE: "The Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says. The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said last year's overpayments amounted to a taxpayer-financed $78 billion subsidy of the firms." -- Associated Press, Feb. 6, 2009.

 * * * * * * * *
"Good News, Bad News, Unbelievable News" is written by Liberator Online Editor James W. Harris. His articles have appeard in numerous magazines and newspapers, and he has been a Finalist for the Mencken Awards, given by the Free Press Association for "Outstanding Journalism in Support of Liberty."
 

PERSUASION
POWER
POINT

 
#263: "If You Can Dream -- and Not Make Dreams Your Master..."
 
by Michael Cloud
 
"When we achieve freedom, the economy will flourish," the libertarian speaker began. "Prosperity will be common. Poverty will be eradicated. I can hardly wait..."

For the next ten minutes, he spun out fantasies of how great freedom was going to be.

This dream was uplifting and inspiring.

"When we end the insane War on Drugs, when we end drug prohibition, drug abuse will be such a minor problem, we probably won't even notice it," began another.

For fifteen minutes, he held court as libertarians imagined a world without drug prohibition.

This dream was pure oxygen for people suffocating from Big Government.

"In a self-regulating free market economy, a laissez-faire economy, we'll see safer, cheaper, and better products. Ever-diminishing defects. Ever-shrinking flaws," began a third libertarian dreamer.

He showered possibilities and likelihoods on the new libertarians who had come to hear him speak.

This dream was exhilarating.

Libertarian dreams point us True North.

They ignite our passions and inspire our minds.

They fuel our efforts.

They focus our energies.

We must begin with libertarian dreams. Or we'll never begin.

But we cannot stop there.

Ayn Rand addressed this question in her play "Ideal." Two characters wondered why life was of no account. Who made it so?

"Those who cannot dream," said one.

"No. Those who can only dream," answered the other.

Those who cannot dream of liberty will never want it.

Those who can only dream of liberty will never seek it. They will fantasize and rhapsodize, but they will not act.

Does your dream of liberty inspire you to act? Does it motivate and activate you?

Does your dream of liberty whet your appetite to do? Does it make you hungry for a libertarian America in your lifetime?

Does it toss you into conversations about politics and economics? Does it make you feel "I've got to tell everybody about these libertarian ideas!"

Does your dream excite and thrill you? Does it get your feet tapping and your heart pounding?

Does it set your soul afire? And do you burn so brightly you've just got to light the world for liberty?

Most people go through life without big, bold dreams. Share yours with them.

Without dreams, there's a hole in our hearts. We want dreams and we need them.

If necessity is the mother of invention, dreams are the father.

To invent a better America, we must dream liberty. A dream  big enough to fill millions of hearts. A dream big enough to inspire and activate.

We libertarians are Dream Merchants. When we talk with family or friends. When we offer a libertarian solution to a talk radio audience. When we write a letter to the editor. When we run for office.

We do not worship dreams. We work for our dreams. We do not serve dreams. Dreams serve us.

But only if we work to make them real. Only if we roll up our sleeves and act. And only if we keep working on them and for them.

We must love our dreams. Then we must live our dreams.

"If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master..." said Rudyard Kipling.

We can bring our libertarian dream to life.

* * * * * * * *
Michael Cloud is author of the acclaimed book Secrets of Libertarian Persuasion, available exclusively from the Advocates.
 
In 2000, Michael was honored with the Thomas Paine Award as the Most Persuasive Libertarian Communicator in America.
 

One-Minute
Liberty Tip


Word Choices: Using "Once Again"

by Sharon Harris
 
Change makes many people uncomfortable. Some people are unable to easily see how bold change can take place. Many lack the historical perspective or the imagination. They are unwilling to let go of today's failed policy, for fear that the proposed alternative may be worse.
 
This can make advocating some libertarian ideas difficult.
 
It is therefore very useful to let people know that some "radical" libertarian ideas were actually the status quo, not so long ago.
 
One excellent way to do that is illustrated in the question Mary Ruwart answers in her column in this issue.
 
The question is on the difficult issue of drug legalization. The questioner asks what will happen if drugs are "once again" legal in America.
 
That use of "once again" is a marvelous choice.
 
Saying "I believe the use and sale of drugs should be legal in America" is scary-sounding to some people. It sounds like you are calling for a radical, unprecedented change in the status quo.
 
But saying "I believe the use and sale of drugs should once again be legal in America" adds great power to your argument. It makes it plain that this was once the norm in America. That you are calling for a restoration of the status quo.
 
This then offers you the chance to point out that all drugs were legal in America until well into the twentieth century, and there were no federal laws against marijuana until 1937. And America was freer and safer because of this policy. (Only 16 states had anti-marijuana laws as late as 1930; by 1937, increased federal pressure led the rest of the states to adopt such laws.)
 
Of course, you will need to have your facts ready on this. The article recommended in Mary Ruwart's column, "Thinking about Drug Legalization," by James Ostrowski, is a great source of information on this issue.
 
For a similarly useful word on the drug issue, we have previously discussed the use of "re-legalization."
 
Regarding the "once again" phrase, here are some suggestions:
 
"I believe Americans should once again be free of the federal income tax."
 
"I believe Americans should once again adopt our traditional American foreign policy of a strong national defense but no interference in the internal affairs of other nations."
 
"I believe the residents of my state should once again be free from a state income tax."
 
You can come up with more. Make the "radical" sound like what it so often is -- a return to common sense -- with this very useful phrase.
 
* * * * * *
Sharon Harris is president of the Advocates for Self-Government. See more One Minute Liberty tips.