From Judge Napolitano:
The Federal government committed extortion and they’re not being held accountable. What’s next? Listen to this: I recently met with the Chair and CEO of one of the country’s top 10 bank holding companies. His bank is worth in excess of $250 billion, has no bad debt, no credit default swaps, no liquidity problems, and no subprime loans. He told me that he and others were forced by Treasury and FDIC threats to take TARP funds, even though he did not want or need them.
The FDIC with Treasury backing, threatened to conduct public audits of his bank unless his board created and issued a class of stock for the feds to buy. The audit, which he is confident his bank would survive, would cost it millions in employee time, bad press, and consequent lost business. He pleaded with the feds to leave his successful bank alone. He begged his board to let him tell the feds to take a hike. But they gave in. The feds are now just a tiny shareholder, but want to begin asserting more and more control. This is a classic extortion: Controlling someone’s free will by threatening to perform a lawful act. (Blackmail is the threat is to perform an unlawful act in order to control someone else’s free will.) There are no exceptions in the statutes prohibiting extortion for government persons
This happened in September 2008, but the demands for more control are more recent. It sounds to me like Paulson, Geithner, Bernanke, and Sheila Blair have all read a biography of Benito Mussolini. I guess they skipped the last chapter.
There is simply no authority in the U.S. Constitution for Congress to exercise the level of control it now seeks over private industry. In fact, this level of control will cost businesses that took TARP (voluntarily or involuntarily) money since they will lose key employees who will go to work elsewhere, the reporting requirements will take time and time is money; and the Constitution basically says that if the government wants to take time or freedom or money from someone or something, it must sue for it. It cannot just give itself the authority to do so via legislation.
Our liberties are slipping away right before our eyes.
By Justin Williams
The very word that makes up the title of our headquarters has been used and abused. What does it mean? If you look for definitions at dictionary.com you will find:
- freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control
- freedom or right to frequent or use a place
- unwarranted or impertinent freedom in action or speech
Let’s start with the first one. This is the purpose of this group, in my mind, to prevent arbitrary control by government over our private lives. Arbitrary in that they are based without any facts and are discriminatory. F.A. Hayek spent his life writing books denouncing arbitrary rules made by governing bodies. This is because the government changes its from role of providing helpful means towards various ends to a singular collective end.
The second and third definitions are the root causes of the abuse of the word liberty. A person may be granted a freedom to use a place or to speak, but they do not de facto have this right. In other words, some people have paired rights with liberty and believe they have a right and liberty to your property. This is false. The liberty of one’s property is entirely the owners, not “the peoples”. The owner may give you the liberty to step upon his property or to speak up in his house, but it is his right to give. There are many people who get used to the tragedy of the commons and speak up in public places. This harks back to the old saying, “If everyone owns it, nobody owns it.” The very reason you have the liberty to speak or use things in the public is because nobody owns the public. Obviously, different with private property.
Liberty is the tool of a free society. It is what allows free people to organize themselves, in so that they can protect their property. Not a tool used to infringe upon your property. The Bill of Rights applies to government, not private places. The correct understanding of liberty is critical in the fight for liberty.
By Adam Bitely
Today was the first day that Obama’s new tax on smokers took effect. Not only is the singling out of a minority group to pay for the majority wrong, this broke a campaign promise from Obama. It’s not like any of us ever expect politicians to keep their promises anyways. Jacob Sullum at Hit & Run had a great write up:
Today the federal cigarette tax rose from 39 cents to $1 a pack. This is the first tax hike signed by President Obama, and it breaks his promise not to raise taxes on people of modest means. In fact, it’s pretty much the most regressive way Congress could have picked to fund an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Still, the federal tax pales in comparison to the cigarette levies imposed by many states. The highest right now is New York’s, which is $2.75 a pack, on top of which Big Apple residents pay a $1.50 city tax, for a total of $5.25 in federal, state, and city taxes, plus the 8.4 percent sales tax, all of which pushes the retail price to $9 or $10. Since taking money from an unpopular minority is a lot easier than imposing a broad tax hike or cutting spending, many states are likely to raise their cigarette taxes this year.
Be sure to watch Freedom Watch today at 2:00 PM EST. You can watch Freedom Watch at FoxNews.com’s Strategy Room
From Judge Napolitano at Freedom Watch:
Another fantastic lineup for Judge Napolitano’s Freedom Watch this week (tomorrow). This week features a Freedom Watch investigation segment and the return of John Stossel and new guests, Thomas E. Woods and Gerald Celente (among others).
Freedom Watch investigation: EXCLUSIVE audiotape of a Ron Paul supporter detained at St. Louis airport.
Guests: Steve Bierfeldt - detained supporter & member of ‘Campaign for Liberty,’ Michael Ferguson - Missouri Libertarian party.
Guests:
Rep Ron Paul, John Stossel, Gerald Celente, Thomas Woods and Peter Schiff.
Topics:
MIAC report, G20 Summit, GM takeover, the Federal Reserve and transparency, summer of anarchy in Europe - is the U.S next? and much, much more!
Tune in tomorrow at 2pm EST online tomorrow (April 1st) as Freedom Watch airs its 8th episode in FoxNews.com’s Strategy Room.
