By Katharine DeBrecht (www.radicalsruiningmycountry.com)

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama heralded his signing of controversial hate crime legislation. While I believe any crime is one of hate, the slippery slope of “hate crimes” has led to a dramatic infringement on the liberties of the people of Great Britain, Canada and Scotland. Worse, such anti-liberty legislation in these countries has criminalized and traumatized children.

According to the 2009 report The Myth of Racist Kids, published by the Manifesto Club (a British civil liberties group), 40,000 children each year are being falsely labeled as racists after a 2002 rule requiring schools to document and report all instances of perceived racism to local governments.

During the most recent Federal Reserve-engineered economic bubble, state and local governments made extravagant promises to their tax-feeder constituencies regarding pensions and other benefits. Now that the bubble has burst, sales and property taxes -- once a mighty, roaring river of revenue -- have been reduced to a thin, pathetic trickle.

This comes at a time when, as the New York Times reports, there is "a $1 trillion gap between what all 50 states have promised their workers [sic -- a more accurate description is "employees"] and what they have set aside."

As the economic crisis deepens, how will state and municipal governments continue to provide for their most cherished constituency -- those who live by plundering the productive?

In the past, I spent lots of money and lots of time supporting this or that candidate, advocating for or against this or that legislation, as a lot of "political activists" have done, and continue to do. Looking back, I now not only realize that it was a total waste of time trying to beg "the system" for freedom, but I realize that it was WORSE than if I had done nothing at all. By bickering over who should be my new master, or whining to the masters to please do what I wanted (they didn't), I was only reinforcing the notion that "the system" is legitimate--that I should HAVE a master, and that I have some obligation to do what he tells me to do.

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The January issue of the New Hampshire Free Press is now online. http://www.newhampshirefreepress.com/PDFs/nhfp0110.pdf

In this issue:
Obama's Torture State
Tilting at Windmills
Reader Letters
Spines
Anarchy in Your Head
Government Employees Overpaid/Underworked
Healthcare: Lump of Coal
Yet More Aid to Dependent Dictators
Free Keene Press

By Congressman Ron Paul, TX

Last week on Christmas Eve, after many backroom deals were made, the Senate passed the healthcare reform bill with a strictly partisan vote. I was pleased that my colleagues in the GOP are on the right side of this bill. Although this vote was a major step in healthcare reform becoming reality, they still have to reconcile the Senate bill with the House-passed version in conference committee. This could prove even more difficult and costly than the Senate vote.

There was a little bit of controversy surrounding one particular Senator who was initially against the bill, but then, coincidentally, a large amount of Medicare funding specifically for his state was tucked inside and he ended up voting for it. One wonders how much more of that will have to go on to achieve final passage.

By Congressman Ron Paul, TX

If anyone still doubted that this administration’s foreign policy would bring any kind of change, this week’s debate on Afghanistan should remove all doubt. The President’s stated justifications for sending more troops to Afghanistan and escalating war amount to little more than recycling all the false reasons we began the conflict. It is so discouraging to see this coming from our new leadership, when the people were hoping for peace. New polls show that 49 percent of the people favor minding our own business on the world stage, up from 30 percent in 2002. Perpetual war is not solving anything. Indeed continually seeking out monsters to destroy abroad only threatens our security here at home as international resentment against us builds. The people understand this and are becoming increasingly frustrated at not being heard by the decision-makers. The leaders say some things the people want to hear, but change never comes.

It might take a while to sink in, but the global warming cause is on the skids. Two issues are taking the whole project down: it is getting cooler not warmer (and hence the change of the rhetoric to a vague concern over "climate change"), and the email scandal of a few weeks back proved that this really is an opinion cartel with preset views not driven by science.

...

But you know what is most tragic to me about this? This whole hysteria led to a fantastic diversion of energy on the left side of the political spectrum. Instead of working against war and the police state, issues on which the left tends to be pretty good, instincts were diverted to the preposterous cause of creating a statist system for global thermometer management.

full article:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/lost-left-climate-morass136.html

Is it a Field of Dreams or a Plea for Return to a Constitutional Republic?

Last night I stumbled upon an article, A Case For Secession-Introduction, (first of a series) on Gather.com and it struck me that the time may soon be approaching when one or two states will be called to step up for the rest of us in hopes of saving the Republic. I’m not advocating for secession now; I’m just looking at the possibility with a little more interest. How such a move might shift our ‘government’ back to position where Representatives actually have to listen to and respect their constituents is a question that interests me. What is clear is that with Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in control, Democratic Members of Congress are currently being effectively bribed with earmarks, promises or threats to pass legislation America does not want. They are not listening.

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What I will be sharing with you over the next few weeks may be considered by some, perhaps many, seditious at the least, treasonous at worst. Fortunately we still enjoy freedom of speech in this country and political speech in particular. This will not be the time or place to argue the methods of secession. Should a state currently operating under the contract of the Constitution of the United States find these arguments compelling in the future, or if the national government continues its slide into tyranny and obligates free men to act to preserve their freedom, it is my hope that the attitude of Thomas Jefferson would prevail; “Let them part by all means if it is for their happiness to do so. It is but the elder and the younger son differing. God bless them both, and keep them in the Union if it be for their good, but separate them if better.”

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