Now This Is Really Scary

This past Sunday's New York Times carried a front page article detailing President Bush's plan for going to war with Iraq. The plan calls for massing 200,000 to 250,000 troops for attack by air, land and sea. The air campaign would be less than the 43 days of the first Gulf War. But in the opening hours of the air campaign, Navy and Air Force jets, including B-2 bombers carrying 16 one-ton satellite-guided bombs and B-1 bombers carrying 24 of the same weapons, would attack a range of targets. Only nine percent of the weapons dropped in the Gulf War were precision-guided; this time it is expected to be in excess of 60 percent. Another area that could witness an increase, compared to the first Gulf War, is the number of reserves that might be called up for active duty. Pentagon officials anticipate a mobilization of the National Guard and Reserves equal to or larger than the 265,000 called to active duty in the first Gulf War. Most of these troops are expected to be deploye!

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d in the United States! This is how The Times quietly snuck in this bombshell:

http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/Rain/rain21.html

CA: Special budget session called

Davis is seeking to wipe out $5 billion of a shortfall that's expected to exceed $21 billion.

Faced with a budget shortfall of more than $21 billion, Gov. Gray Davis Thursday called the Legislature into a rare special session in December to consider a package of cuts and other measures to cover $5 billion of the growing gap. ... Davis divulged no details about what he plans to present to the Legislature Dec. 9. But he said it would include a combination of program cuts, recapturing money from this year's budget that hasn't yet been spent and other measures. ... The December package will not include tax or fee increases, he said. But he left open the possibility that the budget he proposes in January for the coming fiscal year will contain tax and fee hikes. ... Measures approved by a two-thirds vote in the special session would take effect immediately. Those that win only a simple majority would go into effect 90 days after the close of the session.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/5319004p-6309684c.html

Children flee homeschool cop

Parents warned: 'I could have your kids taken away'

When the doorbell rings at the Channell residence in Spring Valley, Ill., 10-year-old Aaron and 11-year-old Christopher run for cover. The homeschooled boys have been on edge, says their father Roger, since a truant officer came to the family's front door Oct. 3 and warned, "I could have your children taken away." The Channells have been homeschooling their boys for five years without a hint of concern from public school officials. Like other Illinois homeschoolers, they've responded to any official inquiry with a brief letter stating that they comply with the law by teaching, in English, all the branches of education taught in public schools. But now the Channells, threatened with prosecution, are among at least 24 families in a three-county area who have been contacted in the past two months by a truant officer demanding that he be allowed to speak with the children and review their educational materials. The Channells are one of at least five families that have been ref!

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erred to a state's attorney for prosecution by Bruce Dennison, regional superintendent of Bureau, Henry and Stark counties in Northeastern Illinois.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29751

No answers from government, no taxes

Activist urges Americans not to pay until grievances addressed

Drawing on what he says is historical precedence, a noted tax-reform activist claims Americans should not pay taxes to the federal government until it addresses a series of "grievances," one of which concerns questions about the legality of the income tax. Bob Schulz, founder of constitutional education organization We The People and planner of numerous tax-reform protests, says while government has a right to levy taxes, Washington is not entitled to them before addressing the people's angst.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29748

Civil rights leader sued for fraud, misrepresenting blacks

A group of African Americans has sued civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, accusing him of fraud and demanding that he stop pretending to represent them. African Americans Against Exploitation, a newly formed group that includes a former head of the Kentucky Republican Party, filed the lawsuit in Superior Court on Nov. 12. The suit claims Jackson is calling himself a black leader without permission from the country's millions of black citizens. The suit also was filed on behalf of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny. The group claims that Jackson uses his influence to intimidate companies to donate money that is supposed to further the cause of blacks, but instead puts it to personal use.

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/5293690p-6291976c.html

PETA Accused of Promoting 'Eco-Disaster' With Fake Furs

Fur manufacturers, feeling the wrath of animal rights activists, Wednesday labeled alternative fake furs an "eco-disaster," and accused the group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), of hypocrisy. ... "PETA wants to eliminate all animal-based clothing, but the press never makes the connection that the alternative is eco-disaster," Teresa Platt, the executive director of Fur Commission USA, a fur industry advocacy group, told CNSNews.com. Platt called the movement toward petrochemical synthetic imitation fur part of "the leap from natural animal based products to politically correct ignorance." According to Platt, faux furs or "Evolutionary Furs" promoted by PETA, require one gallon of petroleum oil for every three jackets manufactured. Platt said the synthetic fake furs do not biodegrade either. "Fake furs do not degrade for at least 600 years and may take thousands of years, but at the end of the day, this is what is being promoted as environmentally frien!

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dly by animal rights activists," Platt said.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200211\CUL20021121b.html

Courts no longer protect rights

It is often said that the United States is a nation of laws, and, in all honesty, I'd have to agree. Americans now suffer through more laws than ever before, as local, state and federal lawmakers do their level-best to control every aspect of our lives from cradle to grave. Yet according to our three-tiered system of government, one branch - the judiciary - was established by our founding fathers to ensure that laws made by men and women always pass constitutional muster. If not, the judiciary was empowered to strike them down. All too often over the past several decades, however, federal courts have repeatedly failed in their mandate to protect us from overreaching, overbearing and overpowering lawmakers and presidents. Sometimes courts even imposed their own will, crafting laws out of whole cloth and completely bypassing the normal legislative process. Then again, why should we expect our courts to be apolitical? After all, as Republicans and Democrats have proven time a!

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nd again, the process for selecting and approving federal judges has nothing to do with an ability to interpret the Constitution and everything to do with petty partisan politics. Whether judges are "liberal" or "conservative" should never be an issue, but it always is.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=29754

Welcome to the American Gestapo

Wonder if any of the vast sums of money approved Tuesday for the new Department of Homeland Security are set aside for black uniforms with knee-length boots and black leather trench coats? Should be. Since we've gone to all this trouble to create the new American Gestapo we might as well let them look the part. Excuse me if I don't join in all the senseless celebration over creation of yet another mammoth bureaucracy of the federal government. Pardon me if I don't go ga-ga over a federal agency that has been given unlimited powers to spy on Americans, trample all over the First and Fourth Amendments, ignore the privacy of anyone it chooses and violate the rights of every man, woman and child who used to live in the Land of the Free. Our own paranoia has accomplished what Osama bin Laden and his minions could not with hijacked airplanes and vague threats about future attacks - these fears have forced America to abandon its principles and create a police state.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_1108.shtml

Dangerous Days for the Internet

... If the Terror War starts to go badly (which is all but certain), and the survival of the empire-building police-statists who now infest the government in Washington depends on controlling the message, they know they'll have to shut us down. The groundwork has been laid, and it's again time to pay the price of freedom with our vigilance as we enter this dangerous period in our nation's history.

http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/Bottoms/bottoms26.html

UK: Pro-hunting writer held in cell after race claims

Robin Page, a columnist for The Telegraph, has been arrested on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred after making a speech at a pro-hunting rally. Mr Page, 61, was detained in a police cell after being interviewed about remarks made by him at a country fair at Frampton-upon-Severn, Glos, on Sept 6. ... Mr Page said yesterday: "I urged people to go on the march and I urged that the rural minority be given the same legal protection as other minorities. All I said was that the rural minority should have the same rights as blacks, Muslims and gays. ... Mr Page's opinions would appear to be no more controversial than those expressed by the Prince of Wales earlier this year. In a letter, leaked in September, the Prince said he agreed with a farmer from Cumbria who claimed that the farming community enjoyed less protection from discrimination than black or gay people. ... Gloucestershire police confirmed that they had arrested Mr Page on suspicion of violating Section 18 (1) of!

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the Public Order Act, referring to stirring up racial hatred.

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/11/20/npage20.xml

An apology to Miss "L"

I recently received an email from a high school student that first directed my attention to the indoctrination of the young by government-controlled schools and then to other related matters. This is the young woman's comments to me: "In reading your article Supposed to be Free I can see that you have some verry strong opinions about our government and the way that it is run. As a citizen of the United State though, what do you think your obligation to America is. Just because things are not to your way of liking how can you change them? Our freedom is a privalage not a given thing that we can take for granted. As a citizen we should be thankful for all the privaleges that we have. It's a privalage that we can put thing on the internet and that we have all these drugs that we can use at the time when were sick. Yes, our govenment isn't the best but we have more freedom than any other courntry does.

Sincerly," I became greatly saddened by these statements as they clearly show the ignorance and disinformation about rights that is being taught by public education, an oxymoron if there ever was one in regards to teaching the youth of this country what this country is all about. Her statements further convinced me of the very core of the problem Americans face today - self-serving legislators controlled by other than the people and the armed enforcement of under color of law dictates prosecuted by courts of the Admiralty/equity, which are manned by treasonous Bar attorneys who use the Constitution for toilet paper. ... The young will then do only what the government allows - exercise the privileges government "gives" out. Liberty - even the philosophy of liberty - will be an unknown for Miss L and all that follow her generation. They will be nothing more than dutiful slaves devoting nearly all of their working lives (currently it is about 50 percent) to the wants and desi!

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res of those called the "elite" (actually the dirty rotten treasonous scumbags). For that, Miss L, I am deeply sorry.

http://www.libertyforall.net/2002/archive/nov10/apology.html

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Johann Opitz <johannp@earthlink.net> RKBA!