Earlier this month, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the controversial drug Ella as “emergency contraception” (EC) to be used up to five days after sex to “prevent pregnancy.” What the FDA did not disclose is that Ella is much more expansive than contraception and actually acts as an abortifacient, resulting in the destruction of the smallest of human life.

Those marketing Ella have tried to closely associate Ella with Plan B (also known as the Morning After Pill) in an effort to quell some of the controversy and break into the EC market, not the abortion market. While ethically there is no difference between EC and abortion as both cause the destruction of life, legally and legislatively, there is a difference.

Classification as an abortifacient creates significant hurdles for the producers, marketers, and distributors of Ella. If Ella were to be labeled an abortifacient, it may not be eligible for federal tax subsidies and its chance of becoming over-the-counter (as Plan B is) is unlikely. It’s also possible that, if President Obama’s federal health care program stands in court, Ella, as EC, may be covered by health insurance plans. Additionally, the future distributors of Ella (such as Planned Parenthood) have financial incentive to refer to Ella as EC, not an abortion pill, as there are typically less objections to the term “contraception” as compared with “abortion” thus increasing the distributors’ client base and profitability.

Ella marketers would like you to believe that Ella is merely an improved version of Plan B. Plan B can also prevent an embryo from implanting in the uterine wall and causes the destruction of the embryo. If taken after the embryo has implanted, Plan B is not able to destroy the embryo. Conversely, Ella can. It is crucial that the public understand Ella’s destructive nature.

The drug that has a similar chemical makeup to Ella is not Plan B, but rather RU-486, the pill used for chemical abortions. Ella’s misclassification as EC is a clandestine method to provide funding for abortion. In its research trials, Ella was not tested for its abortive potential and therefore the unknown consequences and dangers are potentially expansive. At least six deaths as a result of RU-486 have been reported to the FDA over the past six years. Since Ella’s chemical makeup is similar to RU-486, it’s likely its complication rate will be just as tragic.

Watson Pharmaceuticals, the US company marketing Ella, says that Ella will likely be available with a prescription by the end of this year. Disguised as emergency contraception, Ella is a drug with greater destructive value than previously available. Help us spread the truth about Ella by sharing this with your friends and family.

* Victoria Cobb is President of The Family Foundation located in Richmond Va.

** Please forward this to friends and family who you think are interested in issues affecting traditional values and encourage them to sign up for alerts at www.familyfoundationblog.com/?page_id=162

Anyone who believes that the federal government can manage anything efficiently is 8 years old, rationally challenged, or in the business of profiting from the federal government’s inefficiency. The only thing the federal government can do with precision is destroy things (and people). That is the one thing the feds can do with complete and total proficiency. Our first and greatest President, George Washington, understood this reality. He said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Amen.

A recent AP report should serve as another illustration as to the folly of trusting the federal government with the supervision and care of anything beyond those narrowly limited responsibilities defined in the US Constitution. The July 27, 2010, report said, “A U.S. audit has found that the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money, spotlighting Iraqi complaints that there is little to show for the massive funds pumped into their cash-strapped, war-ravaged nation.”

The report went on to say, “The Pentagon has repeatedly come under fire for apparent mismanagement of the reconstruction effort–as have Iraqi officials themselves.

“Seven years after the U.S.-led invasion, electricity service is spotty, with generation capacity falling far short of demand. Fuel shortages are common and unemployment remains high, a testament to the country’s inability to create new jobs or attract foreign investors.

“Complaints surfaced from the start of the war in 2003, when soldiers failed to secure banks, armories and other facilities against looters. Since then the allegations have only multiplied, including investigations of fraud, awarding of contracts without the required government bidding process and allowing contractors to charge exorbitant fees with little oversight, or oversight that came too late.”

See the report at: http://tinyurl.com/us-loses-iraqi-funds

Did you get that? “THE PENTAGON CANNOT ACCOUNT FOR OVER 95 PERCENT OF $9.1

BILLION IN IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION MONEY.” But this is the same federal government that says it can manage America’s multibillion-dollar healthcare system efficiently and with less cost. GAG!

Another report that caught my eye was this one dated August 12, 2010, and carried on My Way News. The report said, “The $700 billion U.S. bailout program launched in response to the global economic meltdown had a far greater impact overseas than other countries’ financial rescue plans did on the U.S., according to a new report from a congressional watchdog.

“Billions of dollars in U.S. rescue funds wound up in big banks in France, Germany and other nations. That was probably inevitable because of the structure of the Treasury Department’s program, the Congressional Oversight Panel says in a new report issued Thursday.

“The U.S. program aimed to stabilize the financial system by injecting money into as many banks as possible, including those with substantial operations overseas. Most other countries, by contrast, focused their efforts more narrowly on banks in their nations that usually lacked major U.S. Operations.”

I’m sure everyone is glad to hear this, Amen? Aren’t you happy to learn that your hard-earned tax dollars “had a far greater impact overseas” than in the United States? In other words, ladies and gentlemen, big foreign banks (and internationally-owned banks) were the primary beneficiaries of the taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailouts.

The report went on to say, “But the report says that if the U.S. had gotten more data on which foreign banks would benefit the most, the government might have been able to ask those countries to share some of the cost.

“‘There were no data about where this money was going,’ panel chair Elizabeth Warren said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. ‘The American people have a right to know where the money went.’”

See the report at:  http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100812/D9HHSM180.html

Dear Reader, are you getting this? “IF THE U.S. HAD GOTTEN MORE DATA . . . THE GOVERNMENT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ASK THOSE COUNTRIES TO SHARE SOME OF THE COST”?

Holy slimeballs, Batman! This is the same government that is collecting nearly 2 billion pieces of electronic correspondence (emails, text messages, cellular calls, phone calls, etc.) EVERY DAY from virtually EVERY CITIZEN in the country. This is the same government that wants to electronically take our clothes off and look at every square inch of our naked bodies every time we get on a commercial airliner. But this same government was not able to obtain the data necessary to determine which foreign banks were going to receive billions of taxpayer bailout dollars? And, “There were NO DATA ABOUT WHERE THIS MONEY WAS GOING”?

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you, who are the morons here? These government politicians and bureaucrats (who are either the most inept, incompetent fools to ever live, or the most deceptive, duplicitous con artists on the planet), or We the People for putting up with these nincompoops?

At this point, I invite readers to listen to this brief archived audio sound bite from former President Ronald Reagan (one of my favorite quotes) at:

http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/home/?p=145

For those of you who are reading a hard copy of this column and not an online edition, and, therefore, are unable to link to the audio above, the file quotes Reagan as saying, “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Do I hear an “Amen” out there?

How, in the name of common sense, can anyone (or any State) be willing to forfeit to the federal government one additional cent or even an ounce more authority knowing that every dollar it grabs and every authority it garners is used only to increase the size of the shackles that it puts around our necks?

And you want THEM to manage healthcare?

For more by Chuck Baldwin, go to http://chuckbaldwinlive.com

With all its faults, America’s health care system is the finest in the world. Why else would rich people in Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and elsewhere come to the US when the medical chips are really down? Socialized medicine doesn’t work for them and it won’t work for the United States.

The negative effects of Obamacare are already starting to take effect. Across the country, tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of physicians are making preparations to retire. I would be willing to predict that the vast majority of physicians who are financially able to retire will do so before 2014 (the year Obamacare officially takes full effect). And who can blame them? Not me.

Think of it: under Obamacare, physicians will be told to increase their patient load by at least one-third, or maybe even half. Imagine a physician with a government-mandated patient load of maybe 5,000 or 6,000 people (or even more than that). Imagine some federal bureaucrat demanding that the physician spend not more than, say, 4 minutes with each patient. Imagine that physician being told what he or she will not be allowed to prescribe or what they will not be allowed to treat. Imagine the health care Nazis micromanaging not only patient care and treatment, but also wages and pricing. If you think insurance companies have too much control over medical care now, just wait until government-mandated (and controlled) medical care is implemented. In other words, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! How could any self-respecting, conscientious physician practice medicine in an environment such as that? They couldn’t–and they won’t. And this will create a shortage of physicians like you won’t believe, which only serves to push the patient load per doctor and quality of care per patient to unsustainable levels. In other words, prepare for assembly-line, one-size-fits-all medical care!

And don’t expect any relief from the courts over inferior medical treatment, either. With the federal government in charge of medical care, the patient’s right to recover damages from malpractice will be substantially limited. After all, when is the last time anyone you know was able to successfully sue the federal government for anything? The feds are immune, Brother. And that means any federally-mandated and controlled health care will be largely immune from any claim of malpractice–or at least that damages will be strictly limited.

Plus, placing your medical care in the lap of the federal government allows the feds to “share” even more of your personal information with hundreds of its alphabet police agencies. Will your medical information be shared with the BATFE, for example? If so, could some of that information be used to deny your right to lawfully purchase a firearm? You can count on it! Good grief! Guess which agency has been chosen to implement and enforce Obama’s national health care program? The IRS! If that doesn’t send goose bumps up your spine, you don’t have one!

I cannot say it forcefully enough: the newly created Obamacare bills are among the most evil and most reprehensible laws ever passed in Congress, the result of which will destroy quality health care (except for the rich and powerful); create perhaps the largest federal bureaucracy (complete with ubiquitous government enforcers) ever seen; increase the size and scope of the IRS to harass, seize, and imprison; and drive up health care costs, federal spending, federal deficits, and, yes, taxes.

To make matters worse, the Obamacare bills are already being used to force US taxpayers to fund abortions. According to LifeNews.com, “The Obama administration has officially approved the first instance of taxpayer funded abortions under the new national government-run health care program. This is the kind of abortion funding the pro-life movement warned about when Congress considered the bill.”

See the report at:

http://lifenews.com/nat6531.html

So, what can we do?

First of all, we should be demanding that our State governors and legislators REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE in any national health care system. I am saying it: individual states should tell the federal government in no uncertain terms that their states will not participate in Obamacare. Period. Furthermore, the states should stubbornly withhold any and all state monies that would be used to underwrite national health care. Suing the federal government is not enough. STATES MUST REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE! Are you listening, Bill McCollum?

Furthermore, I encourage readers to immediately contact your US congressman (woman) and demand that he or she support a discharge petition introduced by Congressman Steve King of Iowa, which paves the way for Congress to repeal H.R. 3590, the first national health care bill (there were actually two separate national health care bills, which became law seven days apart). At last count, the petition already has some 133 signatures. 218 are needed.

Obviously, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is doing everything she can to block the discharge petition, but if 218 votes are gathered, she would not be able to stop it. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the bill can still be overturned and repealed.

I strongly urge everyone to learn the details of how many in Congress are currently working to overturn this healthcare monstrosity by reading this report in World Net Daily:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=176077

First, look to see if your House member has yet to sign the petition. If not, do everything you can to put pressure on him or her to sign the petition. Inform your relatives, friends, neighbors, fellow churchmen, pastors, co-workers, etc., about the need to support Rep. King’s discharge petition and repeal Obamacare before it’s too late.

The other thing our congressmen should do is support Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-TX) “Private Option Health Care Act” (H.R. 5444): “To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 and to replace it with provisions reforming the health care system by putting patients back in charge of health care.” This bill would repeal both H.R. 3590 and H.R. 4872 (the second national health care bill). But beyond that, Paul’s bill would actually provide commonsense, freedom-friendly alternatives to Obama’s socialized medicine.

Learn about Dr. Paul’s bill here:

http://www.ronpaul.com/legislation/private-option-health-care-act/

Folks, this is not a partisan issue. The future of our children and grandchildren’s health care, our nation’s overall economic well-being, and even the freedom of our posterity is at stake. This cannot wait until the November elections, either. We must insist that Congress act NOW to repeal Obamacare. Even many Democrats now recognize that passing this abominable legislation was a very serious mistake and are willing to reconsider their support. Please contact your House member NOW! Here is a convenient web page containing the contact information for all 435 US House members:

NOTE TO THE READER:

Chuck Baldwin is a syndicated columnist, radio broadcaster, author, and pastor dedicated to preserving the historic principles upon which America was founded. He was the 2008 Presidential candidate for the Constitution Party. He and his wife, Connie, have been married for 37 years and have 3 children and 7 grandchildren. See Chuck’s complete bio at:

For more by Chuck Baldwin, go to http://chuckbaldwinlive.com

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

On one hand, these poor souls are fortunate that they have someone to feed, clothe and watch out for them. On the other hand, is this the retirement many have worked all their lives to enjoy? To be sure, most are no longer capable of living with any kind of autonomy. They could not survive on their own in the outside world. What none of them understands is that each one has a target clearly painted on his (or her) back, a large target.

The utilitarian mindset of the proposed keepers of our health care prevents them from seeing these people as human beings with intrinsic value simply because they exist. We are told that the government is capable of being the arbiter, endowed with the ability to decide who has sufficient “quality of life” to be worthy of a share of the limited resources available to preserve life.

While I would not trade place with any one in the facility, and, if the time came, I would almost prefer that my wife shoot me before committing me to such an awful place, I would not “pull the plug” on any of them. To be honest, I don’t believe our medical system would actively terminate their lives at this point. However, we have been warned that, due to increasing demands on available health care resources, little would be allocated to preserve such lives. Some one is in line to make these decisions… and they laughed with Sarah Palin spoke of death panels. Of course they won’t be called that, but they will decide who gets treatment and who does not… which means, who lives and who dies.

The whole utilitarian concept is based on the Darwinian theory that we are all just accidents of nature and have no real value save what we can contribute to the “greater good”. We are seen as slaves to our fellow human beings in general and to those who would be our masters, in particular. This is the end the academic and political figures have in mind when they march in lockstep to discredit any hint of a discussion of intelligent design, and the accompanying concept of individual value.

If each of us has unique and individual value, then it becomes the function of our government to look out for and protect the individual, rather than control him… and away goes the power the elites are so desperately seeking. It means there is a higher authority that our “leaders” must recognize and be accountable to. It means they must actually become the public servants their pose implies.

It also means that the unalienable rights our Declaration of Independence partially lists must be respected and protected. It means that representatives must actually represent rather than run roughshod over the will of their constituents. And, it means that they are, but stewards of the authority they have been granted – and they must use it wisely, for the good of all, not for personal gain.

So, while we will probably always need places to warehouse those who are unable to care for themselves, it needs to be done in a manner that respects who these people once were… and still are.

Sure the Obama administration appears to be doing everything in its power to bring about the hope and change they ambiguously promised. We can, and must, pray for a change of heart in the White House. However, it is within the realm of possibility the Almighty may tell us “no”. Just as he told the Israelites that they needed to go and clear the promised land themselves… and suffered because they did not complete the job. It is entirely possible, that He will not dramatically clear the snake pit of Washington with a wave of his all powerful hand. He may be looking for us to do the job. He may be looking at us to take advantage of the freedoms we have been given as Americans and put people in office that will stand against the increasingly dictatorial tendencies of Barack Hussein Obama.

We need to send people to represent us in the nation’s capitol who will agree with Thomas Jefferson when he said, “I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” We don’t need, indeed we cannot afford, to send those to Washington who seek to work “across the aisle” and compromise with the enemies of freedom and make their machinations slightly less onerous. These are dangerous times and we need men and women of courage who will stand for victory rather than compromise which leads to defeat.

We cannot afford to be like Great Britain where they have already surrendered to a failing welfare state and the primary argument on election day is which party or coalition can best keep their bureaucratic monster from running around on the rocks of financial ruin. We need leaders dedicated to defunding, dismantling and even destroying the Washington power structure.

Barack Hussein Obama knows this. Every step he and his minions take is designed to increase the power of the national government and decrease the freedom of the American people, who he apparently despises. A good illustration of this comes from a recent webinar by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli where he describe liberty as a pie chart. It cannot be expanded by economic activity or governmental edict. The liberty pie has only two pieces… individual power and governmental power. It represents a zero sum game. When one side increases, the other, of necessity, decreases.

We must work to expand the individual freedom piece of the liberty pie and shrink the authoritarian madness coming from inside the beltway. We need to reverse the restrictions on the American people Immediately!… if not sooner! Otherwise we need to consider something else President Kennedy taught us, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

By: James Numark

After viewing and taking part in many debates about national health care, I have been exposed to some interesting arguments both for and against. In the course of the conversations I heard the usual liberal tactic to attack those of a Christian persuasion stating that not supporting national health care is not being Christian as if the two ideas are congruent. After fighting back the urge to throw my laptop in some symbolic gesture of displeasure for the spreading of this falsehood, I decided to consider how Christ, and therefore a Christian, might view nationalized health care.

I looked to the recorded examples of how Christ viewed the caring of those in need and specifically those with health problems. I find no example of Christ endorsing government involvement in anything let alone health care. Jesus Christ never taught that it was Caesar who was to take care of the poor and the needy. Pilate was not required of Christ to take care of the people’s medical care. In contrast to these two points I read of countless stories where Christ taught the power and opportunity of each person to do what they can and chose to offer assistance for those in need as far as they are able. We are not to wait for Caesar to do what lies in our own power. Not even in the Mormon church today does the church provide health insurance for its members. It could very easily do so through its various arms and divisions as part of tithing, but it doesn’t. Why? It isn’t that medical coverage is bad, or that the LDS church doesn’t believe in medical care like Scientology. There are precious truths and reasons why this is. I encourage you to find other reasons why that is.

As Christ did not teach that it was Caesar’s job to provide health care for the people, it is my opinion that national health care is not a matter of being Christian. Christ actually taught opposing principles to those embraced by those in favor of National Health Care and other welfare programs. Christ taught that charity was the responsibility of each individual and that each individual was to chose to find ways to help one another and not pawn that responsibility off on someone else or on the arms of government. Anyone trying to say otherwise is propagating a lie that has no foundation in the teachings of TRUE Christianity. It is also false to think that national health care has the monopoly on good works. Good works are always possible. Of a truth, it is he or she who does good works that bears the mark of a true Christian. Supporting national health care or paying a tax for someone else’s health care does not make a person Christian. In fact, one could say that taking away the individuals repsonbility to help their fellow man is decidedly anti-christian.

About the Author

James Numark is one of the founders and major contributors to the Spirit of the Law Blog.

Predictably, mainstream Republican spokesmen are lamenting Bennett’s ouster, saying Bennett was a true conservative, touting an 80% ranking in the American Conservative Union (ACU) index. However, the ACU index is completely irrelevant to the true measure of a congressman’s fidelity to constitutional government. The index that people should pay attention to is the Freedom Index (formerly called the Conservative Index) at The New American magazine. This index is far and away more accurate in determining a congressman or senator’s fidelity to limited government. In this index, Bennett’s latest rating was a pathetic 50.

Bennett needed to go; the good people of Utah did America a great favor by showing him the door. I trust and pray that this is an indication of how the November elections will fare. I would have been extremely optimistic that this might be the case, except for the miserable election results recorded in Indiana. Dan Coats is merely another establishment neocon in the similitude of Bob Bennett.

In the 105th Congress, Coats’ final rating was a dismal 55 in The New American’s index. On the other hand, John Hostettler’s last ranking stood at 85. Hostettler deserved the enthusiastic support of Tea Partiers throughout Indiana. It is tragic that he lost to someone such as the neocon, Dan Coats. Therefore, what was gained in Utah was lost in Indiana.

And this is going to be the danger for the Tea Party movement this year: If Tea Party activists do not truly understand the issues of limited government, or if they are fooled by establishment politicians, or if they fail to materialize at the polls on election day, all that will happen is one Big Government neocon will be replaced with another Big Government neocon. And, as Sonny and Cher used to sing, “The Beat Goes On.”

Proponents of limited government already had a setback in Texas when establishment neocon Rick Perry defeated Debra Medina. Obviously, Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin campaigned hard for Perry, and another Tea Party “leader,” Glenn Beck, did a hatchet job on Medina on his TV show, characterizing her has a “Truther” (with the associated vitriolic condemnation that such a person must be awful). Now, Texas is stuck with the same old same old establishment neocon.

This is why I again warn Tea Partiers to be very cautious of Palin and Beck. They promote limited government on one hand and then turn around and promote Big Government candidates on the other hand. If Tea Partiers do not grow a large head of discernment quickly, Washington insiders will quickly neuter both their voices and their votes.

Perhaps the biggest threat to the Tea Party movement is Newt Gingrich. Be alert, Tea Partiers: Gingrich is not a friend to limited government. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He proved that in 1995 when he (almost single-handedly) destroyed the Conservative Revolution of 1994. He will do the same to the Tea Party movement in 2010, if he is given the opportunity. Avoid him like the plague!

There are scores (probably hundreds) of great constitutionalist candidates running for State and federal offices this year. It is critical that Tea Partiers learn who they are and turn out in force to support them in the various primary elections. If we wait until the general elections in November, most of the good candidates will already have been defeated, and we will be left with the same old choice between Tweedledee and Tweedledum. That was a big problem in Indiana: voter turnout was anemic.

Believe me, Big Government pariahs are watching the elections of 2010 intently. By electing solid constitutionalists en masse (at both the State and federal levels) this year, Tea Partiers could literally ignite a modern revolution–a revolution of freedom and constitutional government rivaling the Tea Party of 1773–that could continue right on through the 2012 elections.

On the other hand, if establishment types such as Gingrich, Coats, Perry, McCain, etc., are allowed to beguile Tea Partiers, the revolution for limited government will be dead by midnight on November 2. Furthermore, it is extremely important that Tea Partiers not be conned by the major media into neglecting their State elections. Electing principled constitutionalists to State office is probably more important than who we elect to federal office. State sovereignty and freedom issues are mushrooming all over America, and truly our liberties will ultimately be won or lost at the State level.

The elections in Utah and Indiana send mixed signals. While Utah heralds great hope, Indiana portends more Big Government–all the Tea Party hype notwithstanding. Which Tea Party will show up next time? It’s anyone’s guess. All I know is, the stakes could not be higher. Whichever way the elections go in 2010 will probably determine the rise or fall of freedom in America.

I pray the Tea Party of 2010 is worthy of the Tea Party of 1773.

For more from Chuck Baldwin, go to http://chuckbaldwinlive.com.

The decision by Congress to socialize medicine in the US ranks among the most draconian, most egregious, most horrific actions ever taken by the central government in Washington, D.C. This bill rocks the principles of liberty and constitutional government to the core. It changes fundamental foundations; it repudiates historical principle. Oh! The same flag may fly on our flagpoles, the same monuments may grace our landscape, and the same National Anthem may be sung during our public ceremonies, but it is not the same America. The Congress of the United States has now officially turned America into a socialist state.

On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the health care bill into law, and as such, this date–along with March 21–joins a list of dates that have each inflicted unconstitutional, socialistic, and sometimes even tyrannical action against the States United and have, therefore, contributed to the destruction of a free America.

April 9, 1865

This is the date when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Regardless of where one comes down on the subject of the Civil War, one fact is undeniable: Abraham Lincoln forever destroyed the Jeffersonian model of federalism in America. Ever since, virtually every battle that free men have fought for the principles of limited government, State sovereignty, etc., have all stemmed directly from Lincoln’s usurpation of power, which resulted in the subjugation and forced union of what used to be “Free and Independent States” (the Declaration of Independence). In fact, the philosophical battles being waged today regarding the recent health care debacle (and every other encroachment upon liberty and State power by the central government) have their roots in Lincoln’s tyranny.

July 9, 1868

This is the date when the 14th Amendment was ratified. This amendment codified into law what Lincoln had forced at bayonet point. Until then, people were only deemed citizens of their respective states. The Constitution nowhere referred to people as “US citizens.” It only recognized “the Citizens of each State.” Notice also that citizenship was only recognized among the “several States,” not among people living in non-State territories. Until the 14th Amendment, people were “Citizens of each State.” (Article. IV. Section. 2. Paragraph. 1.) The 14th Amendment created a whole new class of persons: “citizens of the United States.” This false notion of “one nation” overturned the Jeffersonian principle that our nation was a confederated republic, a voluntary union of states.

February 3, 1913

This is the date when the 16th Amendment was ratified, and the direct income tax and IRS were instituted. This was a flagrant repudiation of freedom principles! What began as a temporary measure to support the War of Northern Aggression became a permanent income revenue stream for an unconstitutional–and ever-growing–central government.

April 8, 1913

This is the date when the 17th Amendment was ratified. This amendment overturned the power of the State legislatures to elect their own senators and replaced it with a direct, popular vote. This was another serious blow against State sovereignty. The framers of the Constitution desired that the influence and power in Washington, D.C., be kept as close to the people and states as possible. For example, the number of representatives in the House of Representatives was to be decided by a limited number of voters. In the original Constitution, the ratio of “people of the several States” deciding their House member could not exceed “one for every thirty thousand.” (Article. I. Section. 2. Paragraph. 3.) And when it came to the US Senate, the framers also recognized the authority of each State legislature to select its own senators, thereby keeping power and influence from aggregating in Washington, D.C. The 17th Amendment seriously damaged the influence and power of the states by forcing them to elect their US senators by popular vote. The bigger the State, the less influence the State legislature has in determining its US senator. Senators who answered to State legislators, each answering to a limited number of voters, are much more accountable to the “citizens of the several States” than those who are elected by a large number (many times numbering into the millions) of people. For all intents and purposes (at least in the larger states), US Senators are more like “mini-Presidents” than they are representatives of sovereign states.

December 23, 1913

This is the date when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. This Act placed oversight of America’s financial matters into the hands of a cabal of private international bankers, who have completely destroyed the constitutional principles of sound money and (for the most part) free enterprise. No longer would the marketplace (private consumption, thrift, growth, etc.) be the determinant of the US economy (which is what freedom is all about), but now a private, unaccountable international banking cartel would have total power and authority to micromanage (for their own private, parochial purposes) America’s financial sector. Virtually every recession, depression, and downturn (including the one we are now experiencing) has been the direct result of the Fed’s manipulation (again, for its own purposes and with Washington’s cooperation) of the market.

June 26, 1945

This is the date when the United Nations Charter was signed and America joined the push for global government. Ever since, US forces have spilled untold amounts of blood and sacrificed thousands of lives promoting the UN’s agenda. Since the end of World War II, in virtually every war in which US military forces have been engaged, it has been at the behest of the UN. And it is also no accident that America has not fought a constitutionally declared war since we entered the UN–and neither have we won one.

Furthermore, it is America’s involvement in the United Nations that has spearheaded this draconian push for a New World Order that George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Walter Cronkite, et al., have talked so much about. The United Nations is an evil institution that has completely co-opted our US State Department and much of our Defense Department. It is an anti-American institution that works aggressively and constantly against the interests and principles of the United States. But it is an institution that is ensconced in the American political infrastructure. Like a cancer, the UN eats away at our liberties and values, and both major political parties in Washington, D.C., are culpable in allowing it to exert so much influence upon our country.

June 25, 1962, and June 17, 1963

These are the dates when the US Supreme Court removed prayer (’62) and Bible reading (’63) from public schools. At this point, these two Supreme Court decisions were the most serious affront to the First Amendment in US history. Think of it: from before a union of states was established in 1787, children had been free to pray and read the Scriptures in school. We’re talking about a period of more than 300 years! Of course, the various State legislatures–and myriad city and county governmental meetings–still open their sessions in prayer, as do the US House and Senate, and even the US Supreme Court. But this same liberty is denied the children of America. There is no question that America has not recovered from these two horrific Supreme Court decisions. In effect, the federal government has expelled God not only from our public schools, but also from our public life! And America has not been the same since.

October 22, 1968

This is the date when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Before this Act, the 2nd Amendment was alive and well in the United States. The Gun Control Act of 1968 turned a right into a privilege and forever forced the American people to bow to the altar of government when seeking to arm themselves. Interestingly enough, this Gun Control Act mirrored Nazi Germany’s Gun Control Act of 1938. In fact, the Gun Control Act of 1968 is almost a verbatim copy of Hitler’s Gun Control Act of 1938.

Our Founding Fathers could never have imagined that governments within the “several States” would ever be allowed to deny the people’s right to keep and bear arms. In fact, it was the attempted confiscation of the firearms stored at Concord, Massachusetts, that triggered the War of Independence in 1775. That the people of Massachusetts would be denied their right to keep and bear arms, as they are today, could not have been foreseen–and would never have been tolerated–by America’s founders.

Yet, most of the hundreds of draconian gun control laws that have been inflicted upon the American people have all come about as a result of the Gun Control Act of 1968.

January 22, 1973

This is the date when the US Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, which, in effect, legalized abortion-on-demand. These two decisions expunged the Jeffersonian principle that all men are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable right to life (Declaration). Since then, more than 50 million unborn babies have been legally murdered in their mothers’ wombs. Abortion is, without a doubt, America’s national holocaust. It has opened the door to a host of Big Government programs and policies that have resulted in the wanton destruction of human life both in the United States and overseas. It has created an entire industry whose express purpose for existing is the destruction of human life. It has desensitized the conscience and soul of America. Furthermore, it has forced men of decency and good will to finance–with their tax dollars–the unconscionable act of killing unborn children.

And once again, another Jeffersonian principle was eviscerated. He said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” The Roe and Doe decisions violate this principle in the most egregious manner possible.

October 26, 2001

This is the date when President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, and the federal government’s war against individual liberty began in earnest. Most of the unconstitutional eavesdropping, snooping, wiretapping, phone call intercepting, email reading, prying, financial records tracking, travel watching, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, by federal police agencies began with the implementation of the Patriot Act. The Department of Homeland Security and the “war on terrorism,” which have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people worldwide, and the usurpation of federal power at home, have all come about as an outgrowth of the Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act has forever shifted the focus of American law and jurisprudence against constitutional government and individual liberty, toward a police-state mentality. The Patriot Act is even turning our local and State law enforcement agencies into military-style “Jackboots,” where police officers see themselves not necessarily as guardians of the citizenry, but, as often as not, as adversaries, where citizens are deemed to be the “enemy.”

October 17, 2006, and October 9, 2009

These are the dates when President G.W. Bush signed and re-signed the Military Commissions Act. This Act is the outgrowth of the Patriot Act but has, in effect, terminated the fundamental protections of individual liberty, which are found in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. For all intents and purposes, the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act eviscerated the 4th and 5th Amendments, and do serious injury to several others. The Military Commissions Act also expunges the constitutional right of Habeas Corpus.

March 21 and 23, 2010

These are the dates when Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” the so-called “health care reform” bill that we spoke about at the beginning of this column. While Social Security and various Welfare programs have toyed with socialism in the United States, this bill is the largest and most expansive endorsement of socialism in American history. This bill socializes some 18% of the US economy by socializing the health care industry in America. The fallout and ramifications of this bill are going to be horrific.

When future historians review the demise of our once-great republic, they will observe that the above dates, including March 21 and March 23, 2010, were the dates that destroyed America. The American people have been far too tolerant for far too long.

People concerned about the future of freedom and prosperity in America should line up quickly and demand that their respective State legislatures and governors resist this new health care bill, even to the point of refusing to implement it in their states. More than 30 states are threatening to take the health care bill to court. But states must do more than that. They must follow the lead of the State of Virginia and pass legislation refusing to comply with it. Yes, I’m saying it: it is time for another State rebellion! If states do not stand up and draw their lines in the sand now, it will be forever too late.

For more by Chuck Baldwin, go to http://chuckbaldwinlive.com

Each may each seem small, but they indicate a pattern of tightening the screws on the American people. But then, our entire tax systems is geared to having us distracted by scratching and digging for dollars by the hundred while the political class and their friends take it by the millions, billions and trillions.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health care Spending Accounts (HSAs), two of the tools we can use to take control of our own health care decisions are beginning to be drawn down. They start in 2011 by eliminating bandages, aspirins, over-the-counter drugs and the like from reimbursement leaving only prescription drugs and insulin. Penalties for unqualified distributions will be doubled from 10% to 20% and more importantly, contributions to FSAs are dropping from the current $5000 to $2500.

Presently, to receive a deduction for medical expenses, they need to exceed 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income. As we move into the 2013-2016 period, such expenses will have to exceed 10% of your AGI to be of value… making it even more difficult to make use of the deduction. From the statist perspective, this strategy raises revenue without the nasty publicity surrounding a “tax increase”.

However, to show that they are not totally averse to increasing their take of our revenue, they are increasing the employee share of Medicare tax from1.45% to 2.35% for income over $200,000. The even applies to the onerous self-employment tax on small businessmen and women. Who could fuss about this… taking from those who are obviously rich to take care of old people. Additionally, the evil rich will be hit with a new 3.8% tax on net investment income.

Beginning in 2014, those too irresponsible, or poor to buy government approved insurance plan will pay a tax, starting at $95 and rising to the the greater of $750 or 2% or ones income in 2016. To soften the blow on favored groups, the bill provides tax credits to negate the financial impact.

Businesses are not forgotten. Qualified small employers, defined as having less than 25 employees or a payroll of under $50,000… yeah, I know it looks like a misprint qualify for a special credit as do small 501(c) organizations.

Mixing health and revenue generation, beginning August of this year, there will be a 10% tax on those who defy governmental wisdom and use cancer causing tanning salons. Then they wrap it all up with a 40% tax on those who want to take care of their families with what they call, “Cadillac plans”. It’s a way of smacking achievers down to the level their government has decided is appropriate for it’s subjects. I guess we can at least be glad they kept the reference to an American company instead of calling them Mercedes plans… even though it is an Obama Motors car.

So… this is just a taste of things to come in a bill that no one admitted to knowing anything about. It appears that they want us to believe that that the thing appeared on Nancy Pelosi’s doorstep one morning and it absolutely had to be passed so we could see what was inside.

These are just a few details, with more to come. We just need to keep fighting the progressive vision of health care utopia… our lives could depend on it.

When the Democrats initiated healthcare “reform” their stated goal was to bring down the cost curve, to allow for portability of insurance, to eliminate the pre-existing condition exclusion, and to ensure that the however many millions of uninsured Americans there REALLY are (since the number varies in each politician’s speech) could obtain affordable healthcare coverage. Then the Democratic controlled houses of Congress managed to put together and pass two bills that accomplish few if ANY of their stated goals (according to a panoply of non-political business, economic, and insurance experts), expand the size and authority of the federal government, and cost the taxpayers approximately a TRILLION dollars above and beyond the current budget.

While the public had voiced it’s disapproval at the directions the Democrats were taking their legislation at Town Hall meetings and tea party rallies, the Democrats chose to ignore their constituents and press ahead. But when word of the veritable “bribery” of Senators Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson became public knowledge, voter anger exploded and the Democrats lost their veto proof super majority in the senate as Massachusetts elected Scott Brown to the Senate head long held by the late democratic Senator, Edward M. Kennedy. This turnover of a once secure seat to a republican in the very democratic state of Massachusetts, together with rising public disapproval for their legislation, and the fact that all house democrats and several prominent senators have to face re-election in less than a year put the legislation on a very shaky footing. While the separate bills had passed in their respective houses, there were substantial differences between the two bills that would make reconciliation difficult if not impossible. To many, myself included, it appeared as though the push for health care reform was effectively stalled, if not dead.

Then, out of nowhere, it’s back and now the Democrats realize they are going to need republican support to get health care legislation passed. Additionally, because of the upcoming election, they WANT the political cover of having republicans on board with this legislation. To this end, they have been courting the more progressive republicans in both the Senate and House and getting nowhere. For this reason, President Obama convened the Health Care Summit at Blair House so that prominent congressional democrats and republicans could get together with him and key members of his administration to try to arrive at a workable compromise legislation that could garner true bi-partisan support. To their credit, Republican legislators showed up and presented a variety of time tested and proven free market solutions which, if implemented, would likely produce the results the democrats claim to want, and without the trillion dollar price tag or need to expand federal bureaucracy. If the Democrats really wanted to fix the system, they would take the Republican’s ideas, put them in the bill, and if they worked, take credit for fixing health care in the next election and, if they didn’t, blame the Republicans in the next election. All this is merely academic at this point as health care reform is only the magician’s assistant. The REAL “trick” in these pieces of legislation is the creation of an American replication of Great Britain’s National Health Service.

The National Health Service of Great Britain is the largest single employer on that tiny island. One out of every three working adult Britains is employed by this agency. Of these only one out of three is a medical professional such as a doctor or a nurse. The rest are paper pushing bureaucrats. If you take into account all the workers of other British governmental agencies, nearly forty-five percent of all adult workers in England work for the government and one HUNDRED percent depend on that government for health care. This creates a large and LOYAL voting constituency for the Labor party resulting in that party’s veritable stranglehold on political power for the majority of the past thirty years. A great French writer by the name of Alexis De Tocqueville once stated that “Democracy will endure until the day politicians discover that they can bribe the people with public funds.” That is EXACTLY what has kept the Labor party in power, and this lesson has NOT gone unheeded by our own democratic politicians.

In addition to the INTENT of the health care “reform” legislation, there is a far more dire and (I HOPE) unintended consequence that can occur if this legislation is signed into law in it’s present forms. The net effect of this budgetary nightmare might very well bring to fruition the Cloward-Piven Stragety, especially when combined with the unravelling of the Ponzii schemes that the Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs have become. Thanks in no small part to the Babt Boomer’s free love and unfettered abortion policies there are not enough working adults in the private sector of the economy paying into the system to keep pace with the benefits that will have to paid out, esp if no new manufacturing or other capital producing jobs are created in the next ten years. To understand what the net effect of Cloward-Piven will be, you have only to look at what happened to the former Soviet Union, and what’s happening in Greece today. Thst is Cloward-Piven in ACTION.

The total economic, political, and social upheaval in this country that would result is the revolution that many progressive Baby Boomers have been dreaming about and creaming their flower appliqued bell-bottomed jeans over since they were teenagers fornicating in the mud at Woodstock. The destruction of America as it has always been, and the remaking of it as a socialist UTOPIA is and has ALWAYS been the goal of the boomer progressives, and with this one piece of legislation, they may well be able to achieve that goal and put the final nail in the coffin that was once the United States of America.What Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground could not accomplish with their bombs, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid may be able to do with their two thousand page bills.

With the election of Republican Scott Brown and the loss of the democrats filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, we the PEOPLE thought we had ended this very existential threat. Sadly, healthcare reform seems to have had a “Lazarus” moment and is once again alive and well. Actually, the legislation is more like Michael Myers in the “Halloween” movies and we all know that you can’t kill the boogeyman. But like the boogeyman, if you don’t kill this legislation now and for all time, it will rise up again and kill you and yours, fiscally speaking.

If the Democrats are allowed to succeed in this, when we go on to our great reward, or punishment, as the case may be, we may very well have to face the Founding Fathers and account for the mess we made of their once noble experiment. Remember, these guys settled their differences with canes, swords, and pistols, and we may very well deserve the thrashing we will receive at their hands for what we have allowed to happen to what THEY bequeathed us. In less than fifty years time, these elitist idiots will have rolled back every reform of humanism since the Renaissance, and the Enlightenment. We think it no good thing that Islamic terrorists want to take us back to the Dark Ages, but in reality it’s our own progressive elites that want to return us to the Dark Ages and feudal serfdom. I truly hope there is a special corner in the hottest part of hell for progressive politicians in BOTH parties for the part they have played in systematically destroying the last, best, hope for mankind and freedom in this world.

This article first appeared in the blog at http://www.purplepeopleperiodical.blogspot.com/