Columnist Patrick J. Buchanan has a column in Human Events entitled Whose Country Is This? He asks a lot of questions, and pretty much blames President Obama and Washington for the mess at our borders.

But is it really THEIR fault that things are so horribly messed up?

That ragged, toothless old document, the US Constitution, authorizes Congress only one duty remotely related to immigration…with only seven words. Article I, Section 8 says: “(Congress shall have the power) To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization.”

That’s it, friends and neighbors. There isn’t even a definition of the word "naturalization" in the Constitution. But generally speaking, naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship or nationality by somebody who was not a citizen or national of that country when he or she was born.

But that has NOTHING to do with immigration or securing borders against illegal immigration. Remember that not all that enter the USA WANT to become citizens. Some just want to live here.

The rule of naturalization, in its simplest form, would define which persons are eligible for citizenship, and the steps whereby they would become US citizens.

Beyond that, I cannot see any authorization for the United States to enact laws or enforce laws dealing with ANY persons entering any state legally or illegally. That would include those who enter any state legally but remain in the state after their legal immigration documents expire.

Seems to me that immigration laws are the purview of the states, since under the Tenth Amendment, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People."

At first, immigration in America happened slowly. Historians estimate that under one million immigrants…perhaps as few as 400,000…came from Europe to the Americas during the 200 years after the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. But immigration began its long boom period around 1820. Between 1820 and 1860, over 5 million immigrants crossed the Atlantic.

And the flood of immigrants continued: in the 1860s, 2.3 million came; in the 1870s, 2.8 million came. Between 1880 and 1920, nearly 26 million men, women and children flocked to America.

In 1875 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that immigration was a federal responsibility. Then the Immigration Act of 1891 established an Office of the Superintendent of Immigration within the Treasury Department. A “head tax” of fifty cents per person was assessed on each immigrant.

All during these centuries, the Federal Government set no limitation on immigration. In fact, at least thirty states actively recruited overseas. Most of the barriers to immigration were set by European nations, not American states. For example, England prevented the emigration of skilled artisans until 1820. But soon, those barriers fell and foreign governments released their people to emigrate to America.

But in 1921, it came to an abrupt end. Congress bowed to pressure from those who had already immigrated and settled here to stem the tide of immigrants. Congress passed The Emergency Quota Act of 1921, a strict law based upon national origins, that limited immigration to no more than 150,000 entrants annually. This law favored immigration from those of British and European origin. This law was further tightened by the Immigration Act of 1924.

All during the period from 1776 to 1921, the Federal Government played almost no role in immigration, leaving the responsibilities to the states. In 1790, Congress had set a two-year residency requirement for naturalization…but it did not interfere with the rights of the states to accept as many immigrants as they desired. After Jefferson’s inauguration, the term of residency was set to five years, and remains the same to this day.

The Immigration and Nationality Act, or INA, was created in 1952. Before the INA, a variety of statutes governed immigration law but were not organized in one location. The McCarran-Walter bill of 1952, Public Law No. 82-414, collected and codified many existing provisions and reorganized the structure of immigration law. The Act has been amended many times over the years, but is still the basic body of immigration law.

Once again, seems to me that Congress has entirely overstepped their Constitutional authority and enacted law upon law upon law dealing with an issue that should be handled by each state.

What if Michigan decides that they want to increase the number of immigrants into their state? That should be their business alone. If neighboring Ohio doesn’t want immigrants and passes laws that effectively close its borders, so be it.

And the same thing should be happening at the border between Mexico and the Southwestern states, from the Pacific Ocean to the mouth of the Rio Grande in Texas. Each state should decide their own immigration policy, enact laws pertaining to it, and go about enforcing the law.

I know that present immigration woes are hopelessly intertwined with US drug policy and the stupidly-called "War on Drugs." But acknowledging how the DC criminals have bungled many issues, costing billions of dollars and countless lives, only shows how much Americans need to separate themselves from Washington.

The schizophrenia of Washington is writ large in this issue. If Washington understood the Constitution, it could tell the states that immigration is their problem, thereby saving Washington jillions. But DC likes power and the jillions it takes to screw up immigration for all 50 states and the rest of the world. So DC muscles everyone like a mob enforcer.

So, to answer the title question: the 50 states all bear principal responsibility for the woeful immigration debacle in America today. If the states would have asserted their sovereignty over the last 160 years, they would control immigration and the DC criminals would have no voice whatsoever in the matter.

Any seceding state would instantly face immigration and naturalization issues. Why not start dropping off the shackles of DC tyranny NOW? If Arizona can tell Washington to go pound sand, why can’t the politicians in YOUR state do the same…even before secession? Even if you never want to secede?

Secession can cure all the terminal political illness of the United States. Who will be first?

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

You are members of one of the most elite groups of Americans that exists. You are State Governors. There are only fifty members in your "club." Senators have twice as many members in their group, and they are just a Quisling deliberative body. There are 435 members of the House of Representatives, and they are held in lower esteem than used-car salesmen. You are the Chief Executive Officers of states whose Gross Domestic Products rival some of the largest nations on earth.

In the beginning of the Republic, Governors were the leaders of sovereign nations. But, over time, the sovereignty of each state was subsumed by Statism. Still, being a Governor is an historic elected position in American governance.

Governors know first-hand how tough it is to get elected to the positions they occupy. And the office of Governor comes with huge power and perquisites. Thousands of people work for you, and millions live under your leadership. Consequently you, being mostly normal human beings, have big egos. You deserve to have a big ego, since you’ve accomplished a very rare feat by getting elected Governor.

Statistically, more Governors have become the President of the United States than have Senators or Representatives. So, the nation considers your experience as the Chief Executive of a smaller entity kind of the "farm system" for the presidential league.

Only a handful of Governors will ever desire the American presidency. A smaller handful will actively seek it, and there is only one President at a time. And of late, American Presidents get two terms if they choose. So, timing is everything for a Governor seeking the Presidency. Often, the timing doesn’t work out.

Consequently, once you become Governor, there isn’t much of a market for your services in higher office, since you’re about as high as you’re ever going to get in "public service."

But every one of you American Governors could contend to become President of a nation.

But not the United States. The un-United States.

You could lead your state in the process of seceding from the United States of America, and your state could become a new sovereign nation.

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Doesn’t the thought of being the Head Honcho of a new nation appeal to you? Wouldn’t you like to be on par with the Presidents of France, China, India, Germany, Brazil or Russia? If you like publicity, think of the worldwide focus that would be on you and your state as it becomes a new nation. You’d be like a rock star. Your every move would be a news story. Every success would redound to your leadership. School children worldwide would know your name, like they know the names of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, Founders of the United States, and Sam Houston, leader of the Texas revolution and first President of the Republic of Texas.

You would preside over the creation of a brand new nation, and be credited with lifting millions of souls from under the tyranny of an oppressive, uncontrollable government. Plus, you would be directly involved in the dissolution of the United States. Nothing of such import has been accomplished since the breakup and dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989.

There are a few caveats, however.

First caveat is your commitment. You’ll likely have to "put up or shut up" pretty early in the game, with no turning back. Once you hop on the back of the secession bull, you either ride the whole eight seconds and win, or fall off and get stomped by a pissed-off bull…to use rodeo parlance.

You’ll be leading a revolution. The Mobocracy Looter Minions in Washington DC will likely not invite you to their parties anymore. They may take a somewhat dim view of your revolutionary talk and revolutionary actions. They might be somewhat resistant to a Declaration of Independence or Ordinance of Secession with your signature on it. But, on the upside, it will be you that negotiates the terms of any treaties or diplomatic agreements with Washington. Sovereignty, like American Express card membership, has its privileges.

Most of your fellow Governors will not support you. They will only take their lips from the Washington nipple long enough to throw an insult or two your way. You’ll have to give up your key to the Governor’s Club washroom.

On the upside, your example of leadership may empower other more timid Governors to join you.

If you simply secede and try to replicate the government of the United States, your leadership and efforts will be destined to abject failure and worldwide ridicule. One of the reasons that the American Revolution of 1776 was successful is that it introduced the world to the Enlightenment ideals of governance, and gave them a new home outside Europe. So, you would have to embrace some very new/old and radical Enlightenment ideals for the structure of your new nation. An upside here is that you have the benefit of history that men like Thomas Paine and John Locke lacked.

But no guts, no glory.

For an example of what could be, let’s look at Texas. Governor Rick Perry has already spoken publicly about the possibility of Texas secession. But nothing has really been done since that statement in April 2009. I think "the Guv" has Presidential aspirations, but I could be wrong. If Governor Perry took the leadership position in the fight for Texas independence, he would be the presumptive favorite and lead horse in that race. However, he would have a very serious contender for the Presidency of a New Texas if Rep. Ron Paul joined the fray, since Paul has been talking the talk and walking the walk of liberty for decades. Putting these two men together as a team could be intimidating and fearsome.

But in your state, there probably is no other person with your name recognition that will challenge you for the new Presidency. And, if you are leading in the formation of the new government and the secession efforts, you will have the pedigree and record to thwart pretenders to your throne.

How do you lose? Where is the downside for you?

Zig Ziglar says "you can get anything in life you want if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want." Nearly every person in your state wants individual liberty. Nearly every person in your state wants the crushing burdens of Washington taxation, future debt and regulation lifted from their shoulders. And, they share those desires with most other Americans who don’t live in your state.

Help them get it. It may be your last chance at greatness.

But if you can’t get next to the lofty ideals of secession, then think only of yourself and do the things that best promote your persona, reputation and place in the history of the world. Alexis de Tocqueville said that persons who act to further the interests of others ultimately serve their own self-interest. If you help the populace get liberty, they’ll help you in return.

We have lots of ideas here at DumpDC to help you, Ladies and Gentlemen. Just click and read.

May God be with your choices, Governors.

Secession is the hope for humanity. Who will be first?

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

Here are just a few of the risk exposures that states and individuals face, and solutions to manage those risks in the best ways.

Monetary Collapse

The risk here is collapse of the dollar’s value, leaving anyone with dollar holdings and earnings with nearly worthless money. Add to that risk the precursor to collapse, which would be bank closings and suspension of credit card usage. A medium of exchange is necessary for commerce. If your medium of exchange becomes worthless, your ability to engage in commerce will rely only on barter. And, for most individuals, barter is a very limited medium of exchange. What would a normal city-dweller take to the grocer to exchange for food? You likely have nothing the grocer needs.

Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution clearly states that the Congress shall have the power to "coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures." Delegating this power to the Federal Reserve was unconstitutional. The word is "coin" money, a verb. That means minting coins, not printing paper currency. The printing of irredeemable paper currency without underlying precious metal value is counterfeiting.

The US Congress has spent trillions of dollars of worthless paper money and taken on more trillions in debt. There is only one sure consequence of counterfeiting, and that is the collapse of the monetary system. Eventually, the money will become worthless. But before that occurs, the money will go through a period of massive inflation. It will look as though prices for goods and services are skyrocketing, but that is simply the way that inflation manifests itself in the marketplace. Today it takes a dollar to buy what a five-cent-piece would buy in the 1930s. The dollar’s value has diminished by 95% in that time. That also means that a person earning $100,000 in today’s money could have lived the same standard of living in 1930 for $5,000.

The nations of the world made the gold-backed dollar the reserve currency for the world. A "reserve" currency means that every nation agreed to accept dollars in payment of debts. But now that the dollar has no real value, the world is forsaking the dollar as reserve. The world looks into America’s future and sees no willingness toward fiscal responsibility or even the resolve to support the value of the dollar. Eventually the world will supplant the dollar with another reserve currency. When other nations are unwilling to accept dollars, any remaining value in American dollars will vanish.

A sub-risk in this topic is the timing and procedure used by the nations of the world as they move away from dollars. To prevent a worldwide collapse of the financial system, all nations must make perfectly-timed decisions relating to divesting themselves of American debt securities. Statistically, the chance for a mistake in timing among the nations of the world is extremely high. That means that collapse could happen very suddenly and without warning.

Monetary collapse in the United States is unavoidable. There is nothing that Washington is willing to do to avert the disaster. There is nothing that Washington could do to avert the disaster. They have already gone over the cliff. They simply haven’t hit bottom yet.

Any new nation that replicates US monetary policy will suffer the same consequences over time. A new nation that establishes a gold and silver-backed monetary system, in which gold and silver coins are the only true money, will thrive.

A new nation has only two choices for a new monetary system. Choice One is a gold and silver standard, sound money, no inflation and no debt. Choice Two is counterfeit currency, fractional reserve banking and loans from the International Monetary Fund to operate. Choice One guarantees liberty. Choice Two guarantees financial slavery.

A state that secedes from the Union to form a new nation must establish their monetary system before they do anything else. All private, public and commercial exchange, and the viability of the new nation will turn on this one decision.

Taxation

The risk here is ever-increasing taxation to levels that are unsustainable, reducing citizens to serfs and state property.

Americans are taxed in every way possible. There are personal income taxes, business income taxes, capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, user fees, property taxes, license fees, sales taxes, Social Security and Medicare taxes and many others. The Federal tax code runs into the thousands of pages, and is so complicated that even the IRS cannot agree on the meaning of the code. The Federal Government has cleverly required employers to collect taxes at the paycheck level, making American employers the tax collectors for the Feds. But this also has the effect of making people seemingly unaware of the total tax burden confiscated from them. The concept of voluntary taxation is pure fiction.

In a new nation, all of the US Federal taxation would cease. Not one more dollar would flow to Washington. Hundreds of billions of dollars would not be extracted by force from individuals in the new nation and sent to Washington. Every individual and business that earns income would immediately begin receiving the gross amount of their earnings. So, if your weekly salary was $1,000, your paycheck would be for $1,000. Imagine that!

The method of taxation that carries the lowest risk of abuse, and the highest levels of individual liberty is the national sales tax. A new nation could opt for no income tax, which would mean no income tax withholding. A new nation could raise their revenue from only sales tax, rather than a mix of taxation schemes. A national sales tax pulls revenue from all commerce in the new nation, not just citizens. Property taxes could be entirely abandoned as a taxation scheme. The only tax code that would exist is the codification of the sales tax. There would be no other code necessary, no individual tax filings, no tax liens, no tax foreclosures. There would be no deductions and no tax-exempt organizations. The new national sales tax could be divided among the counties and cities as needed.

Voter Fraud

The risk here is that when voting cannot be determined to be accurate, confidence in the outcome of an election or referendum vanishes. In addition, this means that voting outcomes can be manipulated. In America, voting has become an anachronistic relic, and only serves to placate the populace and deceive them into believing that their vote counts for something.

It has been proven over the last 10—15 years that electronic voting machines are wholly unreliable and that their systems can be hacked to change voting outcomes. Therefore, when voting outcomes can be rigged, all elections and referendums are subject to suspicion. This happens from the highest office to the lowest, and in every referendum. The only way to alleviate this problem is through a physical ballot system, which can be counted and verified.

A new nation will have the ability to organize the new government any way it wishes to protect the integrity of the voting process.

US Debt Level

The risk here is bankruptcy and dissolution of the US Federal Government.

The US debt is almost unknowable. There are so many spending programs that are not considered in Generally Acceptable Accounting Principles (GAAP) on government books that the brightest minds cannot know the total amount of Congressional spending. Congress increases the so-called debt ceiling in every session of Congress, recognizing absolutely no restraint on their ability to spend.

A new nation will instantly forsake the US debt, leaving Washington and the remaining United States to fend for themselves. The new nation plots its new course with no debt.

Regulation

The risk here is that unconstitutional Federal regulations stifle human behavior and commerce, steal individual rights and liberty, and make good governance impossible.

There is not one second of any 24-hour period in which an American citizen is not regulated by some law. There is not one human act that an American citizen can do that is not regulated by some Federal law. Even thoughts are regulated in today’s America when you consider hate crimes laws on the books.

A new nation would start with no burdensome regulations. This would allow maximum freedom for the individual.

Health Care

The risk here is that health care in the USA has been regulated so much by the Federal Government that it is becoming unmanageable. The unconstitutional health care legislation currently being negotiated in Congress will add thousands more pages to Federal regulations, and make matters worse for individuals and insurance companies.

A new nation will have no health care system. But if the citizens of the new nation decided that they wanted to spend their own money on a national healthcare system, they could do so with only their own resolve and funds.

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War and Defense Spending

The risk here is that America is experiencing negative outcomes from its foreign policy decisions, which are carried out by the military.

Any military action done outside the borders of the United States is an offensive action. You cannot defend your country by attacking another on their soil. Defense means to defend, to repel, to thwart attack. Maintaining military bases on foreign soil is unconstitutional and costly.

The defense budget for the United States has become so large that it can scarcely be controlled. And it’s more than just prosecuting foreign wars that runs up the cost. Hundreds of billions are spent annually for new weapons systems that are unnecessary, as well as maintaining the existing weapons systems. Every one of the 50 states has either a military base or businesses that help produce military goods…or both. The Department of Defense cleverly planned it that way so that cutbacks would be very unpopular and difficult to achieve.

In a new nation, properly organized, there would be no standing army, but a citizen militia, just like each state had in 1776. A new nation would walk away from the gigantic defense budget of the USA. If a new nation wanted new weapons systems, it would have to look to its founding documents for authority, then pay for the new toys itself.

Social Programs

Over time, Americans have had an intolerably heavy burden of social spending laid on their backs. Many programs are so deeply buried in the Federal budget that they are known only to the ones who benefit from them. Programs like farm subsidies, loan guarantees, and thousands of government grants given out to either promote or prevent certain human actions fill the various Cabinet-level agencies’ spending. We usually only discuss Social Security and Medicare, but think about obscure pork barrel projects. The long list of pet projects passed by Congress in a record deficit year includes $1.8 million to study why pigs smell. Other gems include $1.9 million for a water taxi in Connecticut, $3.8 million to preserve a baseball stadium in Detroit and $380,000 for a fairground in Kotzebue, Alaska, just above the Arctic Circle.

In a new nation, all of the criminal, unconstitutional spending done by all the 50 states vanishes overnight. The new nation is free from the burden of contributing their hard-earned money to waste and fraud.

Education

The risk under consideration is whether the state has an obligation to educate its citizens or not. If the new nation decides to fund education, it must collect more taxes from the people residing in the new nation. If it decides to forego compulsory education and allow parents to educate their own children and themselves, the new nation will allow for maximum individual liberty and responsibility.

Immigration

The risk in immigration is normally the strain it places on government services. But a new nation, properly organized and formed, would turn the immigration question on its head, and make many of the immigration concerns irrelevant.

If the new nation adopted the "corporation model," no immigrant could gain citizenship without a procedure of some sort. No children born of immigrants would achieve automatic citizenship. If the new nation resisted the Siren’s song to pay welfare benefits, there would be no drain on the coffers of the new nation. The free marketplace would handle the influx of new individuals coming to the new nation to live. They would have to work and earn income, or leave the way they came. The new nation could also use its citizenship as an incentive to attract the most talented immigrants from around the world. Prices for goods, services, food and housing would accurately reflect supply and demand and directly affect immigration. Said another way, why would you immigrate to the new nation if you could not find work, housing, food, and you knew there were no welfare benefits? But if work, housing and food were available, the immigrant would contribute to the new society.

Constitutional Governance

I left this point until last to emphasize the greatest risk of all. The risk here is how to prevent fraud. The US Constitution is a mere compact between parties, and it cannot bind any two parties into a legal contract. Consequently, the US Federal Government can enact any legislation it pleases and spend any money it pleases in any manner it pleases. It truly answers to no one but itself. So the general understanding of constitutional law is misleading. My points listed above that direct your attention to the US Constitution are true, but the fact that the Constitution has no authority makes many of the arguments moot. It does not, however, diminish the risk for a seceding state. If anything, it increases the political risk. Any new government not founded on contract law is less than a gentlemen’s agreement affirmed with a handshake.

A new nation would have the opportunity to create a new form of government that is actually a legal contract between all parties. The new government could be structured like a corporation. Each person who wanted citizenship would be required to execute a legal contract. No one would be automatically born into citizenship, but would have to attain the age of majority before becoming eligible for citizenship. Stock and voting rights would be issued to each citizen.

Conclusion

The overall recognition of risk found in this article is that a government not strictly limited cannot be controlled, and in such nations, individual liberty is lost.

But a government strictly limited in authority and scope can be successfully managed with the goals to "establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" (excerpted from the Preamble of the US Constitution).

Try to envision yourself and your family in a new nation created by secession. All the people you meet are excited and breathless in their anticipation of the future. The general opinion of the populace is pure unbridled optimism. The new nation’s economy is booming, the money is backed by gold and silver, and there is no inflation. "Now Hiring" signs are in all the shop windows. The newspaper’s "Help Wanted" ads are packed full. Prices for goods and services are low, and the stores are loaded with goods. Manufacturers are streaming into the new nation to take advantage of the rare pro-business atmosphere. Wages are climbing steadily in manufacturing jobs as companies compete for the best and brightest to be their employees. New businesses are being created at a fever pace. Residential and commercial construction is at a high level to meet the demand of the new residents.

All because one state recognized this historic opportunity and chased the dream of liberty through the process of state secession.

Secession is the hope for mankind. Who will be first?

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

The book is available for free through The Gutenberg Project at: The Art of War. I strongly recommend this short read, as the truth can be used in many areas of human interaction.

For this article, I shall concentrate on his writings about waging war by deception. Here are some of his thoughts.

Chapter 1:18 All war is based on deception.

Chapter 2:2 Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

Chapter 2:18 If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.

Chapter 6:8 That general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.

Chapter 6:9 O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy’s fate in our hands.

Chapter 6:12 If we do not wish to fight, we can prevent the enemy from engaging us even though the lines of our encampment be merely traced out on the ground. All we need do is to throw something odd and unaccountable in his way.

The general concept that I want you to take away from these verses is that in order to win many battles, you must keep your enemy off balance, deceived and confused about your strategies and tactics. If you can attack him at many weak points, he will have to respond, and therefore, you control both the location and the tempo of the battle. This will be important in the thoughts and questions below.

I’ve been writing lately about secession and the well-regulated militia, and how they should be inextricably tied to one another. From the reactions I’m receiving from readers, this concept seems to be somewhat new to them.

Specifically, I and other writers have referred to the truest meaning of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states: "A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

How many millions of words have been written about the Second Amendment?

Starting with the 1856 Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court, to the National Firearms Act of 1934 and up to this day, Americans have seen infringement upon infringement piled upon them. But, do you remember in your lifetime hearing of ANY of those regulations that dealt with the security of a Free State?

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Could it be that the arguments made over the last 150 years about gun control… the laws and regulations passed by states and the Federal government…and any talk about personal safety, crime prevention, hunting and sport shooting…have been a clever diversion away from the clear intention of the words of the Second Amendment?

Think about it from a purely tactical viewpoint. If you and I are in an argument about a certain topic, and I can get you to engage in a related topic that looks important, but completely diverts you from the real issue, I’ve won. I can drag you around by your nose ring for as long as you want to argue about what matters LEAST. Meanwhile, I can do pretty much what I want in regard to the real issue.

It is the same as General Tzu’s admonition to attack the enemy where he is weakest, combined with his recommendations to attack at multiple weak locations simultaneously. The enemy will expend itself defending its weak points while you conquer.

Isn’t this what Washington and most of the states have done? They have enacted gun legislation and regulations that force citizens to challenge them in the very courts that the tyrants control. Meanwhile, the politicians subtly changed our states and our nation.

The Second Amendment is the effort of the Founders to guarantee that the sovereign states would protect a mechanism whereby the states might thwart Federal tyranny through armed resistance, if only as a last resort. Now, there is nothing in the Amendment about any "last resort." Common sense dictates that all efforts to settle any difference would proceed peaceably first. And, when a well-regulated state militia is a day-to-day reality, it acts as a deterrent merely by its existence. Thugs seldom attack armed people.

Go ask Switzerland if a militia works. They haven’t been invaded in nearly 500 years.

Washington and the state legislatures have bleached out the reality of the well-regulated state militia from the American fabric. Meanwhile, Americans have been hoodwinked into fighting about whether or not they can carry a gun with or without a permit, or packing heat in a bar or restaurant. While those turf wars raged, Washington absorbed the sovereignty of the states, and made the states into serfdoms.

So, can you now see that because "A well-regulated Militia…is…necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed?"

States need to reclaim their sovereignty by revitalizing their state militias. Through the militia, states will once again gain their true freedom to regulate the Federal Government that once was their servant. And, in the failure of the exertion of state sovereignty to control the actions of Washington, the unhappy states may secede knowing that they are capable of defending their decision from all who would attempt to use force to prevent their exit.

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

What is secession?

"Secession" is broadly defined as "the act of withdrawing formally from membership in an organization, association, or alliance." We are defining it specifically as the action of a state to cease its participation in the United States of America and for that state to create itself as a new independent, sovereign nation.

The American Revolution of 1776 was, by definition, an act of secession. An association of English colonies banded together and issued a Declaration of Independence that was presented to King George III. The King did not accept the secession and a civil war ensued.

Remember that the Declaration of Independence in 1776 was not the legal, formal secession document originating within any state Governor’s offices or the state legislatures. The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence were lawyers, merchants, farmers and others who took it upon themselves to place the King on notice of the intentions of a small minority of Royal subjects who did not wish to be subjects any longer, and who were leading a revolution against the King. (Read Secession and Attorneys)

Another secession event happened in the United States in the 1860s. This time, it was the actual state governments that issued formal secession documents.

The misinformation widely prevalent in America about secession was written by the winning side of the American War Between The States of 1861—1865. They called it the Civil War. But it was not a civil war by definition.

James Fearon, a civil wars scholar at Stanford University, defines a civil war as “a violent conflict within a country fought by organized groups that aim to take power at the center or in a region, or to change government policies.” Usually, one side of the conflict is the State.

Based on that definition, the actions of the 11 Confederate states in 1861 did not constitute starting a civil war. They weren’t looking to take power, overthrow the US government or change government policies. They just lawfully and peaceably seceded from the Union. The United States actually invaded a sovereign nation, the Confederate States of America, with the intent of overthrowing their government and bringing the states of the CSA back into the USA.

The most recent example of state secession happened in 1989 when the fifteen republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) seceded from the USSR. The USSR ceased to exist as all of the republics rejected the Kremlin government and became sovereign nations. (Go to: Mikhail Gorbachev and Secession)

Despite the fact that the USSR was the second most powerful nation on the planet, it was completely powerless to stop secession. Once the republics reasserted their sovereignty as free nations, the USSR dissolved into the dustbin of history.

What is the difference in secession and nullification?

Nullification is the legal principle holding that any US state has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional. It has its legal foundation in the 9th and 10 Amendments of the US Constitution. Nullification has been used by the states throughout US history to prevent unjust laws from being enforced.

The most noteworthy use of nullification by any state was the so-called Nullification Crisis of 1832. Congress had enacted a high tariff that South Carolina rejected in its Ordinance of Nullification, which stated that the tariff was unconstitutional, and therefore unenforceable in South Carolina. The state made military preparations to resist anticipated federal enforcement. Congress responded by passing a Force Bill, authorizing President Andrew Jackson to use military force against South Carolina to enforce the tariff. But Congress simultaneously passed a new lower tariff that was satisfactory to South Carolina. So, Congress wisely chose to back down and compromise against the South Carolina nullification action.

Thirty-nine states of the United States have passed Tenth Amendment resolutions in recent months, stating that they are prepared to re-assert their authority to determine which Federal laws will be enforced within their borders. A few have enacted firearms legislation which states that firearms and ammunition manufactured and sold within the borders of a particular state are not subject to Federal law and regulation. It remains to be seen if Washington will recognize the nullification of Federal gun laws.

So, we see that nullification is a method whereby a US state may effectively control the legislative process of the US Federal Government as it pertains to how Federal law is enacted and enforced within any state. Compare that process to secession, in which a state formally withdraws from the United States to become a sovereign nation. Secession asserts that the relationship between parties has ceased, and that all previous commitments are null and void.

Why should a state consider secession?

First, secession should never be considered for light or transient reasons. Disagreements come and go between parties, and can usually be negotiated to the satisfaction of all parties. But when a long list of abuses exists, when repeated usurpations of state authority are enacted, when the sovereignty of states is trampled and ignored, and when citizens suffer a diminution of both their natural rights and economic freedom, it is the duty of states to solemnly consider either altering or abolishing the government that abuses that state and its citizens.

Who benefits from secession and what are the benefits?

In today’s America, any seceding state will benefit from the repudiation of the United States’ debt load, which will result in the savings of hundreds of billions of dollars that the citizens of the seceding state will never have to pay. Otherwise, if a state secedes and forms a government just like the one from which they seceded, there is limited benefit to the state or the citizen. But if the state protects individual liberty, life and property rights, the citizens will be infinitely more free.

The citizens of a state that secedes benefit to the degree that the seceding state "institute(s) new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness." (from US Declaration of Independence)

Also, any persons who immigrate to the seceding state can experience benefits if they renounce their former citizenship and become a citizen of the seceding state. But, an émigré who did not change citizenship would still receive benefit from simply living in the seceding state.

The business community in the seceding state will benefit instantly as the crushing weight of US Federal regulations would vanish. No longer would businesses be required to be the tax collector for the IRS. The economy of a seceding state would be expected to explode with new commerce directly attributable to the competitive advantages of the new state.

The new state government of the seceding state would benefit as they would be free of US government rules, regulations, usurpations and unfunded mandates. No longer would the seceding state be required to enforce US Federal law.

The seceding state would benefit from a general shared attitude of most people of hope, optimism and excitement about the future.

Immigration to the seceding state would explode as liberty-loving individuals worldwide would bring their talents, experience, assets and gifts to the new nation, seeking a bright future for themselves and their progeny.

Who doesn’t benefit from secession?

In this specific example of secession from the United States, the parties who do not benefit are the United States Federal Government and the states that remain in the Union. To them will fall the unconstitutional debt load in greater percentage than before secession. The US Federal Government will also receive no further revenue from the seceding state. Also, the citizens of the seceding state will no longer be available to the United States for military service. And, individual secessions will occur as Americans leave the USA to immigrate to the new nation…people voting with their feet.

Will state secession cause a military conflict between parties?

There is no reason in law or in fact that the parties may not mutually and amicably agree to separate from each other. It would be mutually beneficial to both parties to negotiate the secession issues, which would include issues of Federal lands inside state borders. But it should be stated that, in the 1783 Treaty negotiated between King George III of England and the United States of America, the King "relinquished all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof.”

The seceding state would also be aware that, if the United States Federal Government dissolved or collapsed in like manner to the Soviet Union, any previously negotiated issues or treaties would be null and void.

Can secession be done without armed resistance?

As stated in the previous paragraph, secession should proceed without military conflict. But, the Second Amendment of the US Constitution states that because a well-regulated militia is necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. So, while no reason for armed conflict exists, that does not prevent it from occurring. A seceding state should revitalize its militia and prepare them for armed resistance and the defense of the borders of the seceding state from invasion by the United States military, its hired mercenaries, or United Nations troops.

Can Liberty be restored in America without secession?

The Washington political machine is spinning wildly out of control. Both political parties are two sides of the same coin. Neither party stands for Constitutionality, small government and fiscal responsibility. Even if you elect new representatives, senators and Presidents, the Washington culture will quickly corrupt them by requiring the officials to court contributions while lobbyists shower them with money and perks. In addition, Congress has created vast bureaucracies that grow and infest the nation unabated. Finally, and most importantly, the elected officeholders in Washington do not recognize any control or restraint on their power to enact unconstitutional laws and spend money in excess of tax revenues. Washington has borrowed trillions of dollars from the world that will never be repaid. If there is a solution to bring Washington back into compliance with the Constitution, I have not seen it to this date.

When should secession be done?

Secession should be solemnly deliberated by the elected representatives and the state citizens. Secession should be initiated at the moment that any state reaches the point at which it will no longer accept the despotic tyranny and unconstitutional laws coming from the US Federal Government in Washington, DC. Each individual must come to his or her own conclusion that secession is the only way to regain liberty, and each state must make its secession decision independently.

How would secession be done?

There is no written, formal method for initiating and completing an act of secession. If history can be our guide, we see that the conventions of the seceding states of 1860 wrote and ratified a Declaration of Secession. Each Declaration enumerated that particular state’s reasons for secession, in like manner to the 1776 Declaration of Independence.

Then they passed an Ordinance of Secession. Here below is the simple, succinct wording of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession of 1860.

AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled “The Constitution of the United States of America.”

We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the “United States of America,” is hereby dissolved.

Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.

That is the sum of all the words necessary to complete the secession.

In conclusion, try to envision yourself and your family in a new nation created by secession. All the people you meet are excited and breathless in their anticipation of the future. The general opinion of the populace is pure unbridled optimism. The new nation’s economy is booming, the money is backed by gold and silver, and there is no inflation. "Now Hiring" signs are in all the shop windows. The newspaper’s "Help Wanted" ads are packed full. Prices for goods and services are low, and the stores are loaded with goods. Manufacturers are streaming into the new nation to take advantage of the rare pro-business atmosphere. Wages are climbing steadily in manufacturing jobs as companies compete for the best and brightest to be their employees. New businesses are being created at a fever pace. Residential and commercial construction is at a high level to meet the demand of the new residents.

All because one state recognized this historic opportunity and chased the dream of liberty through the process of state secession.

Secession is the hope for humanity. Who will be first?

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

Here is an excerpt that should enlighten all Americans about what the President is thinking.

"Moreover, wars between nations have increasingly given way to wars within nations. The resurgence of ethnic or sectarian conflicts; the growth of secessionist movements, insurgencies, and failed states; have increasingly trapped civilians in unending chaos. In today’s wars, many more civilians are killed than soldiers; the seeds of future conflict are sewn, economies are wrecked, civil societies torn asunder, refugees amassed, and children scarred.

I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war. What I do know is that meeting these challenges will require the same vision, hard work, and persistence of those men and women who acted so boldly decades ago. And it will require us to think in new ways about the notions of just war and the imperatives of a just peace.

We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth that we will not eradicate violent conflict in our lifetimes. There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified."

It is not any secessionist movements anywhere on this globe that have trapped civilians in unending chaos. That is entirely the purview of the nation-state. Confiscatory taxation, unending regulation of every facet of human life, and the destruction of our economic system and currency through central planning is the source of unending chaos, both at home and abroad.

And the "Just War theory?" The only just war I know of is the war in which you are defending your own borders against invasion. Invading another country is unjust, and used to be unlawful.

Obama praised pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, Zimbabweans who voted despite election violence, and pro-democracy protesters in Iran.

“It is telling that the leaders of these governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any nation,” Obama said.

I wonder if Obama and the Mobocracy Looter Minions of Washington will still feel the same way when one of the United States serves him with a Secession Document.

President Obama, with his own words, shows the world that he is not familiar with the job description for President clearly stated in the US Constitution. He said:

"I make this statement mindful of what Martin Luther King said in this same ceremony years ago — “Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.” As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life’s work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there is nothing weak — nothing passive — nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.

But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people."

What a shameful statement of ignorance.

A president is required by the Constitution (Article II, Section 1) to take the following oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

That oath says NOTHING about swearing to "protect and defend my nation."

Most of the things Obama has done since taking office have been grossly, criminally unconstitutional. Mr. Obama would have a full plate of activities if he would just protect and defend our Constitution. If past presidents had stayed within the strictures of the Constitution, the USA would not have any threats today.

If America ever finds and elects a man or woman who will simply be true to the oath of office they take, America may have a chance of survival. However, no President since before Lincoln has been serious about the Oath. If history is any guide for our future, there is no Oath Keeper on our national horizon.

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

How About One Week for Nullification and Secession?

I enjoy watching your show on Fox News. You deliver astounding facts in an entertaining manner. And I am aware that you are FIRST an entertainer. You have been awarded a prime afternoon time slot because you are adept at entertaining and holding an audience so advertisers can charge confiscatory ad rates, thereby making a profit for Rupert Murdock.

I watch your hour-long program regularly, in which you provide unassailable proof of the widespread criminal behavior in Washington.

I hear a never-ending merry-go-round of subjects like:

• ACORN
• Van Jones
• The Cloward-Piven strategy
• The Federal Reserve
• Democrats
• Republicans
• President Obama
• Bailouts
• Stimulus money
• Economic meltdown
• Cap and Trade
• Global warming and "Climate-gate"
• One world government
• Health care legislation
• Tea Parties and Freedom Rallies
• War

But lately, watching has become tiresome.

You must be experiencing a level of frustration seldom known in human history. You are the watchman on the wall…a lone voice crying out in the wilderness…shouting against a howl of info-noise to the assembled citizens to warn them of the fast-approaching dangers. Few even hear you as you explain why Americans, many the victims of government chicanery, are losing their jobs and losing their homes.

And what about that audience? There is such a thing as "fear fatigue." You already know your audience is experiencing it. You say that many people call or write to you, and are afraid and ready to give up. What you don't tell them is that things are going to get much worse, and soon.

Glenn, the one glaring deficiency I see in your program is LACK OF A SOLUTION.

I believe that the American Federal Government has gone past the point of no return. Phoning, writing and emailing Congress will absolutely not change the direction of Washington. Tea Parties, Freedom Rallies and Tenth Amendment resolutions will have no effect on Washington. Yet, that is what you recommend to your audience. It only reinforces their feelings of helplessness.

But there is a legal, moral and ethical solution to Washington's criminal ways:

State Sovereignty. Specifically, State Nullification and finally, State Secession.

Over the last 150 years, the American states have been relegated to the status of large counties. They have voluntarily given up their sovereignty, abandoned their militias, and become sucklings to the Federal sow. Americans must focus locally once again, and each state must become the final arbiter of its own destiny…even if that means that it secedes from the Union.

Want to affect Washington? Leave them to their own devices. State secession pulls the plug on Washington's life support system…which is inevitably money.

How about a few shows dealing with the only truly viable solution to end Washington tyranny? Nullification and Secession.

There are a good number of Nullification and Secession experts you can interview, many of whom have been guests on your show in the past.

Brilliant minds like:

• Lew Rockwell, Chairman of the Mises Institute and Editor of LewRockwell.com
• Thomas Naylor, Professor Emeritus, Duke, founder of 2nd Vermont Republic
• Daniel Miller, President of Texas Nationalist Movement
• Kirkpatrick Sale, Director of The Middlebury Institute for Secession Studies
• WA State Rep. Matthew Shea, author of a recent white paper on Nullification
• Judge Andrew Napolitano, Constitutional scholar
• Thomas DiLorenzo, College professor and Expert on Abraham Lincoln
• Dr. Thomas Woods, Author and Senior Fellow at The Mises Institute

Would this be a bridge too far for you, Glenn? Would Fox News even allow you to air such broadcasts? Would there be a firestorm of invective coming back at you from the Main Stream Media if you began to recommend Nullification and Secession as the Final Solution? Could you withstand the weight of the criticism you know would result from this kind of stand?

I leave it to you, Glenn. Want to vastly increase your audience? Want to be the subject of hot conversation around the world? But most of all…do you want to offer REAL SOLUTIONS to hurting Americans to take back liberty in their own lifetimes?

Run a week of shows in which you explore Nullification and Secession.

What have you got to lose?

Sincerely, Russell D. Longcore Marietta, Georgia www.DumpDC.com Six Letters That Can Change History Following the growing Secessionist Movement in America

PS: Speaking of advertisers, you have some national advertisers selling gold and gold stocks during your show. I think that your advertisers may know something you do not know.

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution states thus: "A Well-Regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the Right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Seems to me that we have either ignored or simply missed a very vital component of liberty in our discussions and writings about secession…or about the Second Amendment. That very vital component is the existence and use of force.

No reasonable proponent of state sovereignty wants to propose secession and state nationhood through armed overthrow and insurrection. All of the thought leaders of secession that I have read concentrate on the orderly and lawful methods of secession, and eschew any ideas of military resistance. That’s fine.

But James Madison, John Adams, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson had a different perspective.

The Framers knew that when tyranny advanced against any state, the state’s last option to resist that tyranny was to take up arms and fight. They had just proven its effectiveness by seceding from Great Britain through the use of state militias.

Most of the words I’ve ever seen written about the Second Amendment had to do with the last phrase of the Amendment. Even when I wrote about this subject HERE, my emphasis was about firearms.

My only paragraph about the militia said this:

"Any State with a well-regulated Militia would be capable of defending itself from Federal tyranny. Over the past two hundred years, the individual States have forgotten that their security as a free State relies upon a well-regulated Militia. The first two phrases in the Amendment shed light on today’s power structure in the United States. The Federal government now has standing armies, navies and an air force that far outnumbers any state militia. So, state sovereignty has been destroyed. Now states are more like counties…no sovereignty, only slave territories of a cancer-ridden Federal system."

The very nature of government is force. It is not governed itself by anything but raw force. Bullies and tyrants never are. If you doubt this, go find a woman who has gotten a restraining order against an abusive ex-husband. See how safe she feels. A week hardly goes by in which there is not a news story about an ex-husband or boyfriend who murders a woman, even though she got a court-issued restraining order. But courts don’t enforce restraining orders because cops are not personal bodyguards. They only deal with violations after the fact.

In like fashion, courts and Congresses, resembling murderous ex-boyfriends and looters, are only stopped from wreaking their mayhem by force or the threat of force.

Do you notice that American armed forces are in Afghanistan and Iraq, not walking the streets of Pyongyang, North Korea? That’s because North Korea is very willing to defend itself. Washington bows up like a banty rooster about the lawful Iranian civilian nuclear program, but sends bribes to "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il.

Even if secessionist and nationalist leaders champion the cause of non-violence and secession through lawful means, they do themselves and their followers a disservice by refusing to broach the subject of armed resistance to Federal tyranny. That position is akin to posting a sign in your front lawn that reads "Gun Free Zone." You’ve just announced that you have no means of defending yourself against attack and violence. Ask those at Fort Hood, Columbine High School and Virginia Tech.

There is a fine line between acknowledging that you’ll fight tyranny and picking a fight with a tyrant. The first trick is to know enough not to cross that line. The other trick is to be aware that the bad guys keep moving the line.

I think of a state like Texas and its very exciting nationalist movement. I encourage a free and open discussion of militia re-building as they move forward. With a Texas population of over 24 million, the militia could easily become a force of 1—2 million able-bodied adult men.

Secessionists in every state needs to talk about this subject.

Any state that seriously contemplates secession must reconstitute and rebuild its own Militia. This will be one of the most solemn indications of that State’s seriousness about its own liberty and the liberty of its citizens.

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

Sure, you can ultimately lay the blame on all of us, since we are the ones who allow the atrocities of Washington to continue. But for now, let’s look at Washington’s record of achievement over the last 150 years.

War of Northern Aggression — 1860s: The North wages war on a confederation of seceding states who left lawfully. Over 600,000 men died on both sides.

Reconstruction: 1860s—1870s. The North plunders the South.

Fractional reserve banking: counterfeiting by another name. Born in the 1800s, perfected by the Federal Reserve and central banking system of the USA.

Spanish-American War — 1898: "Remember the Maine?" A complete lie told by newspaperman WR Hearst, bought by the public and Washington to go to war.

Federal Reserve: established in 1913. For 96 years, it has mismanaged the economy and counterfeited currency.

IRS and the Income Tax (16th Amendment): 1913. What starts out as a small tax becomes a leviathan. What starts out as a small division of the Treasury becomes the most feared weapon of Washington.

World War 1: 1914—1918. 117,000 dead Americans, 205,000 wounded. The US had no business in a European family war but President Wilson had other ideas.

Depression I: 1929—1940s. The Federal Reserve caused it.

New Deal: 1933—1936. FDR’s massive government jobs program, plundering the wealth of the USA. Fascism by another name.

World War II: 1941—1945. Another European war, we had no dog in this fight. FDR baited the Japs into attacking Pearl Harbor, giving him political cover.

Cold War: The US and the USSR escalate preparations for war to new heights, spending hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons.

Korean War: 1950—1953. 36,000 Americans dead, 96,000 wounded.

Viet Nam: 1950—1975. 58,000 dead Americans, 303,000 wounded.

Creation of three letter agencies: HEW, HHS, CIA, FDA, FCC, DOA, DOD, EPA, and the list goes on…

New Cabinet bureaucracies: Energy, Education, Homeland Security, etc.

Grenada invasion: 1983. 19 Americans dead, 116 wounded.

Panamanian invasion 1989: 23 Americans dead, maybe 3,000 civilians killed.

Bosnian War: 1992—1995: US sends troops under UN flag, millions of civilians made refugees.

Gulf War: 1999. President George HW Bush commits a massive force to Kuwait. 379 Americans die, 776 wounded in a 100-hour war.

Iraq: 2003—present. About 5,000 Americans dead, over 35,000 wounded (that they’ll admit to). That doesn’t count casualties of our mercenaries…I mean contractors.

Afghanistan/Pakistan: 2001—present. About 1,000 Americans dead, over 4,500 wounded. That doesn’t count casualties of our mercenaries…I mean contractors.

TSA: 2001—present. Domestic airline travel done "the government way."

Let’s not forget…

• Counterfeiting, bailouts, nationalization and massive inflation: Just another way that Washington says "you belong to me."
• Regulation of every facet of human life: Try to think of a second of your life that is not regulated in some way by Washington. Quick answer: that second does not exist.
• Two-party political system: two sides of the same coin, both Washington cheerleaders and sycophants. Both want to spend unconstitutional money.
• Out of control military, bases in 130 nations.

Here is the point to this litany of tyranny. The government of the United States of America has screwed up the entire planet through their actions over the last 150 years. The events of currency collapse and inflation in our not-too-distant future will reverberate throughout every nation on earth.

States of the United States that choose to secede will certainly be affected by the implosion of the Washington government. But, could any new nation ever match the "Hall of Shame" listed above?

New American nations, formed from the seceding United States, would be little pinpoints of light and liberty. If their only guiding principle was to not make the same mistakes that the US government made over the last 150 years, they would be destined for success.

How could they fail?

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company. He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The Best of Russell D. Longcore

This event
was a mind-blowing visual and emotional event worldwide, as we saw
TV images of euphoric crowds celebrating, dancing and weeping at
the Berlin Wall. Few really believed that the Soviet Union would
collapse after only 69 years of existence. The Soviets rivaled the
USA in military might, and they were as imperialistic as the Americans,
exporting Communism around the globe.

But their Union
unraveled, beginning in 1989 with the "glasnost" political
reforms of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1990, newly-elected
Russian President Boris Yeltsin led the Russian Congress to formally
declare Russia's sovereignty over its own territory, and began passing
laws to supersede Soviet law. Russia was the largest republic in
both territory and population in the Soviet Bloc.

A national
referendum was held on March 17, 1991, with the majority of the
USSR's population voting for preservation of the Union in nine out
of fifteen republics. But it didn't matter. After the attempted
coup d'tat against Gorbachev in 1991, Yeltsin emerged as the strongman,
and Latvia and Estonia declared their independence.

By December
of 1991, The Soviet Union had dissolved.

I was in Berlin
in December 2003, performing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Chorus and the Berlin Philharmonic. The Hilton Hotel where we stayed
was only a couple blocks away from Checkpoint Charlie, one of the
most prominent and widely-known points of passage between East and
West Berlin. We walked to Checkpoint Charlie and were surprised
to find that, even fourteen years after the Fall, East German buildings
still looked gaunt and forbidding.

This little
bit of history should give secessionists all over America a boost
in morale.

Consider these
six points:

1. The largest
of the republics regained its sanity and seceded. That should give
the Texas Nationalist Movement additional hope and perspective in
their quest for a New Texas nation.

2. The bigger
they are, the harder they fall. Prior to collapse, the USSR had
the second largest economy in the world after the USA. The Soviet
economy was a centrally-planned economy based on state ownership
of industry and management of every facet of commerce. Washington
is repeating the same central-planning errors the Soviets could
not make work. If the second largest world power in human history
can dissolve, so can Number One.

3. Most of
the people in the Soviet Union voted to maintain the Union, even
though it had been the source of oppression and death for 69 years.
That shows you how much suffering people will endure willingly like
sheep. That also shows you that the suffering masses desperately
need moral leadership.

4. Small republics
like Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and the rest of the 15 republics
eventually became sovereign nations once more. They have thrived
since. Small American states will also thrive when they become nations
once again.

5. The USSR
dissolved because the republics rejected national laws that conflicted
with local laws. The republics also refused to pay tax revenue to
the Moscow government. This caused havoc in Moscow. In the US, 39
American states have enacted sovereignty resolutions that assert
their 10th Amendment rights. The American states are on the right
path. Now will they do the right thing?

6. The greatest
complication for the American Federal Government, far greater than
any complication that befell the Soviet Union, is that the US dollar
is the world's reserve currency…the ruble wasn't. The nations
of the world are forsaking the dollar because of Washington's criminal
counterfeiting ways over the years. Just as creditors can force
a corporation into bankruptcy, the nations of the world will force
Washington into bankruptcy and eventually the USA will dissolve.

So the fall
of the Berlin Wall was much more significant to your future than
you ever realized. Don't miss the valuable lessons here. Just because
America doesn't have a big concrete wall doesn't mean that we don't
have barriers to liberty. Oppressive government must be summarily
rejected, and free people have a duty to either alter or abolish
it.

November
11, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company.
He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children
and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist
website at: www.DumpDC.com.

The
Best of Russell D. Longcore

The base commander
says soldiers who witnessed the shooting reported that Major Hasan
shouted “Allah Akbar!” (God is great) before opening fire. Hasan,
an American citizen and a practicing Muslim, himself was shot four
times, and is presently hospitalized in stable condition. Originally
it was thought that Hasan was killed, but later his survival was
confirmed.

Hasan is a
physician…a psychiatrist in fact. He recently worked at Walter
Reed Army Hospital in Maryland, one of the primary places that wounded
Gulf War soldiers are treated for horrific injuries. But those same
wounded soldiers bring back deep mental wounds, and Hasan's specialty
was in counseling and helping soldiers suffering the mental anguish
from war.

Major Hasan
was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan, and reports say that he
was angry about his deployment.

Over the coming
weeks and months, military investigators will work to determine
Major Hasan's motivation for the murders. If found competent, he
will likely stand trial for the murders and injuries. However, you
should expect that the findings will be "spun" in a way
that absolves Washington and the military from any responsibility
for their part in the murders.

Nothing in
this article should be misconstrued as a tacit approval of Hanan's
acts. Murder is always murder, and killing 13 and wounding 30 is
an horrific slaughter. No justification exists for this act.

Here are some
points that likely will be off-limits in the mainstream media:

1. The morality
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. George Bush's administration
and Congress lied the US into an Iraq war against their own puppet
dictator Saddam Hussein. It was never proven that Hussein or Iraq
had ANY involvement in the 9-11 attacks. President Obama has now
fully embraced war in Iraq and Afghanistan which continues unabated.

2. The legality
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No declaration of war has ever
been enacted by the US Congress, which is required in the Constitution.

3. Base security
and the Second Amendment. Military personnel do not forsake their
rights under the Second Amendment when they take their Oath of Service,
do they? The fact that the soldiers on bases across the world are
unarmed makes it easy for any assailant to do his work. Universities
like Virginia Tech (curiously Hasan's alma mater, where another
mass murder incident took place), public schools, and government
buildings are also open kill zones for armed gunmen. Just one soldier
carrying his sidearm at Fort Hood could have stopped the slaughter.
One soldier. One.

4. Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder. Part of PTSD is the mental anguish military personnel
experience when they have done unspeakable things in war that conflicts
with their moral code. How do you live with yourself when your actions
caused the deaths of women and children who never did anything to
deserve death? How do you cope with seeing thousands of people bombed
out of their homes and turned into refugees? How do you cope with
seeing your buddies blown to bits by IEDs? How do you deal with
the disease, displacement and death that your very presence in a
foreign country delivers? Most military personnel live through it,
albeit mentally tortured. But some choose #5.

5. Suicide
rates in the military. News stories about alarmingly high suicide
rates in the military have been surfacing since 2001 when the US
began its military adventures in Iraq. The fact that military personnel
have been deployed multiple times is a giant factor. The fact that
National Guard and Reservists have also been deployed to "the
sandbox" multiple times is another suicide factor. Finally,
soldiers see…and cause…thousands of civilian deaths in both
countries. The military personnel ask "what are we doing here?"
and find no answer. They can't escape their service, can't desert
their post and hop a plane for home, find themselves 5,000 miles
from home with no solutions, or are scheduled for a mandatory deployment
that they cannot avoid without court martial. So, in hopelessness
and despair, many kill themselves.

6. Desertion:
defined in Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice as
"Any member of the armed forces who (1) without authority goes
or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty
with intent to remain away therefrom permanently; or the abandonment
of military duty without leave and without the intent to return."
Only in the military…or slavery… is a soldier "owned property,"
subject to court martial, death or imprisonment for "quitting"
his job. Desertion rates are up significantly since 2001, with many
deserters heading to Canada or some other nation for asylum.

Major Hasan
is a devout Muslim, so his story will likely be spun about Islam
and terrorism. Reports say that he has expressed grave concerns
about waging war against fellow Muslims. This is a legitimate concern
for any devout believer.

But Hanan had
other options. He could have refused the deployment for religious
reasons (Conscientious Objector status), or simply the reason that
he refused to obey an order he believed to be an unlawful order.
Lieutenant Ehren Watada refused to deploy to Iraq in 2006. Watada
said he believed the war to be illegal and that, under the doctrine
of command responsibility, it would make him party to war crimes.
The Army lost the initial court martial ruling, dropped the second
court martial in 2008 and discharged him from the Army.

Washington's
leaders and minions set the stage for this tragedy. But don't look
to them to take any responsibility for the toxic environment that
our military personnel are forced to live under. Isn't this akin
to abusing a dog over years, and then feigning surprise when the
dog attacks someone? Should we not treat our fellow humans better
than our pets?

Think about
this. Do you believe that any military personnel, constitutionally
deployed within the borders of the Unites States of America in a
purely defensive status would ever have reason to react in this
manner?

Does this have
anything to do with state secession? Yes, it does.

Hanan’s actions
are what is commonly referred to as “blowback”…the unintended
consequences of government policy. Nations that don’t invade other
nations don’t have these kinds of tragic events as a rule. And states
that eventually secede from the US, and keep their militias within
their own borders, defending the new nation from invasion, won’t
have them either.

November
7, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company.
He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children
and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist
website at: www.DumpDC.com.

If you watch
any news service for seven days, you'll learn that the dollar is
weak and growing weaker. You'll learn that other nations are preparing
to disconnect from the dollar as the world's reserve currency. And
you'll learn that America is in big trouble, at home and around
the world. (Wonder why Chicago didn't get the Olympics? What countries
like the USA right now?)

Over half of
the American states have passed legislative resolutions exerting
their rights under the Tenth Amendment. That's nice, and symbolic…and
somewhat unusual for slaves to stand up to the plantation owner.
But it's not really necessary.

So when is
the best time to actually pull the trigger and secede from the United
States?

I believe that
states should be making concrete plans right now for secession.
States already have intricate plans in place in case of natural
disasters and such. Should not a state have a plan in place in case
of political disaster?

The United
States Federal Government is a dying monster. But is still possesses
political might, military might and potency. Dying monsters quite
often thrash about and injure those that are too nearby. So at this
point in time, while Washington still APPEARS viable, state secession
would not seem to be a wise move.

After all,
why would a state willingly take the chance of incurring the wrath
of Washington? It would be like in the Tolkien movie "Return
of the King," when the good guys presented themselves at the
Black Gate to divert the gaze of Sauron's all-seeing eye. Washington
might turn its fury on a seceding state to make an example of it,
in order to discourage any other state from trying secession.

Washington
is working 24/7 to produce substantive changes in American governance
and culture. And, at some point, some state might decide that enough
is enough. But I believe that it will take an event that happens
outside of Washington to bring about Washington's collapse.

The most likely
event is the worldwide rejection of the US Dollar as reserve currency,
and the worldwide use of any other currency as reserve. Even the
change of the dollar as the currency of choice of any major petroleum
bourse will spell disaster for the dollar.

Iran has already
formed an oil bourse, which uses the Euro, the Iranian Rial and
a basket of other currencies as the settlement currency for petro
transactions. Its first day of trading was Monday, October 26, 2009,
on the Free Trade Zone Iranian island of Kish. Iran, having the
world's second largest gas reserves and third largest oil reserves,
is trying to play a more active role in oil and petrochemical transactions
in international markets.

Between the
rejection of the dollar worldwide, and the selloff of US Government
securities by nations like China, combined with runaway money printing
by Washington and the hyperinflation that MUST follow, the dollar
has nowhere to go but down…and precipitously.

The value of
the dollar will tumble against other currencies…very soon. It
will happen as other nations scramble to get rid of American currency
and securities holdings and protect the very survival of their own
nations. Washington has been passing bad checks for too long, and
the nations are stepping to the pay window.

It is at this
moment in time, when the dollar freefalls, that the states will
have a golden opportunity to secede. States must do what it takes
to assure their own survival, and not as a slave state to Washington.
But a secession alone won't solve anything. The heavy lifting just
begins when a state secedes.

First there
would have to be a Provisional Government installed until the formal
government could be designed and brought into being as a legal entity.

The very next
thing that MUST be settled is the issue of money. If a new nation
adopts the very same banking environment that America has right
now, the new nation will be doomed to fail. The new nation MUST
have a 100% gold/silver standard. It must also prohibit by law fractional
reserve banking. Both government monopoly on monetary policy and
fractional reserve banking are counterfeiting by another name. It
must be prevented before it starts.

Monetary
policy and banking worldwide is failing. A new nation needs to go
another way, and that way is to return to sound money. Most of the
other challenges that a new nation would face will be easier if
the new nation has money backed with precious metals at 100% reserve.
But you cannot counterfeit your way to liberty and prosperity.

Timing is everything.
If states secede at the time that Washington is drowning in worldwide
debt and the financial markets worldwide cause the collapse of the
dollar, Washington may be powerless to stop secession. Ask Moscow
how well they stopped the secession of the Western Soviet republics
in 1989.

I know I'm
getting to be "Johnny One-Note" about monetary policy,
but that should tell you how crucial it is. Remember that no nation
in the history of the world has survived that counterfeited its
money. Not one. Ever.

But also remember
that the Byzantine empire, on a gold standard, lasted over a thousand
years…until it debased its own money.

1. A bourse
   is a commodities exchange in oil, petroleum and natural gas.

November
3, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company.
He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children
and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist
website at: www.DumpDC.com.

A constitution,
or any document organizing a government, must have authority and
validity. But the US Constitution has no inherent authority or validity
and has never had either. If we can learn what the US Constitution
is and what it is not, we can understand the flaws in the old constitution
and then craft a new Texas constitution with authority and validity.

I believe that
one of the major reasons that Washington is able to operate as it
does, outside the strictures of the Constitution, is because those
persons in power know that the Constitution is not legally enforceable.
Absent a restraining legal document, they do exactly what they wish
and what they can get away with.

The US Constitution
has the following words in its Preamble, showing the intent of the
Framers:

We, the people
of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty
to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution
for the united States of America.

So what exactly
is this Constitution?

I think it
could only be called a "loose agreement" between certain
people at the time that it was written and ratified. It is not a
treaty ratified between sovereign states, which would have the weight
of law. It cannot be considered a legal contract, since legal contracts
have characteristics that the old constitution does not have.

It was ratified
by votes in the several states. But ratification in any form didn't
turn it into a legal document with enforceability and authority.

The old constitution's
sentiment seeks to secure blessings to themselves and their posterity,
meaning future generation of citizens. But a loose agreement cannot
by law or reason bind any future person to its details. Contracts
cannot obligate persons who will live in the future, either. They
can only obligate persons who are living presently and who sign
and receive the contract.

The old constitution
is not a legal contract. The Constitution never bound any two or
more parties in a legal way, nor did it ever purport to bind anyone.
A timeless principle in contract law is that the contract is not
valid until the contract is signed by all parties and delivered
to the parties, or the representative of any signatory party. Any
party may refuse to sign or deliver a written instrument and thus
invalidate the contract. The US Constitution was not signed by anyone
or anyone's legal representative. It was not delivered to anyone
or their representative. No one in the USA, either alive or dead,
has ever signed the Constitution as a legal contract between parties.
So how could it be a legal document with binding authority or validity?

Contracts are
also voluntary. The parties come together for a purpose, but are
free to dissolve the contract based upon the terms of the contract.
Even if they leave contrary to the contract terms, there can be
consequences, but they can still leave.

Lincoln was
completely right in this matter. His position was that, once in
the Union, no state can ever leave. And if the US Constitution was
an enforceable contract between parties, his position would have
been rejected instantly and laughed out of any court in the land.
But in light of the unenforceable nature of the Constitution, Lincoln
was free to do what he pleased as it related to the Confederate
States of America and war. But the Confederate states were also
right to secede from a Union that could not bind them. Constitutionality
was irrelevant.

Even though
the old constitution wishes to bestow blessings and liberty on their
posterity, it has no power whatsoever to achieve this goal. Further,
it never showed any intention toward future generations other than
to offer useful recommendations to their posterity toward the blessings
of liberty. If they were in some way able to bind future generations
to the Constitution, they would not have bestowed liberty but slavery
upon their posterity, since their children would be bound to it
from birth, like it or not.

The Constitution
is not a perpetual corporation. The perpetuity of a corporation
would require that new members voluntarily assent to its laws and
by-laws as old members die off. New members must sign on because
without their legal signatures, they would not be members and could
not vote on corporate issues. There is no evidence whatsoever that
the Framers intended the US Constitution to be a corporation's organizational
document.

So we can see
that the Constitution is not a contract. It binds no one, and never
did bind any persons. We see that all those who pretend to operate
under its perceived authority act without any legal and legitimate
authority.

Those who support
the Constitution fall into three classes:

1. Parasites
who see the government as an instrument they can use to further
their own desires or increase their own wealth.

2. Credulous
dupes. Credulity is defined as willingness to believe, especially
on slight or uncertain evidence. Dupes believe that they are "free
men" living in a "democracy" in the greatest country
on earth. Dupes vote for the very agents who enslave, rob and murder
them and their fellow citizens.

3. Bystanders
who are aware of the evils of the government but are unwilling to
place their own interests at risk to work at making a change.

But we voted
and elected these Representatives and Senators. They are our duly
elected officials, aren't they?

Are our elected
representatives our personal agents with legal authority to bind
each of us individually and collectively? No they are not. In order
for you to have a legal representative, you must sign your name
to a document that gives the representative the power to act in
your behalf. This document is commonly known as a "power of
attorney." You must also deliver the document to the agent.

Did you ever
sign a power of attorney so that any elected officeholder could
make binding decisions on your behalf? Did you authorize any person
to obligate you to laws, regulations or the payment of taxes to
any governmental body? I know that I have not done so.

And the secret
ballot makes the concept of any elected representative acting as
your agent even more ridiculous. How could secret voters hire an
agent? How could secret voters enter into a power of attorney agreement?

So we see that
those persons acting as our elected representatives are acting unlawfully,
and that we have both the right and duty to treat them as usurpers
and frauds.

Then upon what
authority does the Federal Government operate? Who gave them the
authority to enact laws, tax, confiscate men's property and kill
other men who resist their machinations?

You could say
that voters select their representatives by ballot, and so bestow
authority upon them. But in matters of law and reason, this is not
true. It would not be upheld in a court of common law. If you and
three of your friends voted in favor of a proposal in which a fourth
friend would take it upon himself to deprive me of my property or
my life, he would be a robber and/or a murderer. If he presented
himself at my door to do his work, he would be unable to produce
any legal authority to complete his task. Absent legal authority,
I should treat him as a robber and murderer and resist his efforts
even unto deadly force.

In a courtroom,
a judge would ask to see your representative's written authority
to act in your behalf. You would be unable to produce such written
authority.

So voting is
neither a contract nor a power of attorney. And secret ballots should
never be considered legally binding, since no signed contract between
parties ever existed. Further, if voters authorize another person
to act as their agent, they should do so in an open manner so to
accept responsibility for the agent's acts. That's called "liability,"
and that's what happens out here in "the real world."
But the US Constitution, in Article I, Sec. 6, says that "for
any speech or debate (or vote) in either house, they (Senators or
Representatives) shall not be questioned in any other place."
So your agent cannot be held responsible for any laws they make…and
neither can you. So, if no one is responsible, who is responsible?

NO ONE.

And let's return
to the subject of legal authority. The Constitution has no legal
authority to bind any two or more persons. If it did, you would
possess a copy upon which you would find your own signature and
at least one other person's signature. But that document does not
exist in any form and has not existed in over 235 years. So, absent
that authority, voting is only theater. It is an exercise in making
the citizen feel that he is participating in a legitimate government.

The Federal
Government in Washington has been illegitimate from its origin.
There is no enforceable law to restrain it from any act. It was
only the morality and ethics of the earliest founders that restrained
them from tyranny. Unfortunately for Americans, that morality and
ethical restraint are a quaint memory.

OK. Convinced
that the old Constitution is a cruel joke? Then, how can the new
constitution be crafted to guarantee legitimacy and legality? If
the framers of the new constitution just write one like the old
one, it will suffer the same illegitimacy issues as the old one.

Here's a suggestion
on how to write a new Texas Constitution.

Form the new
Texas as a Non-Profit Corporation…Texas, Inc. The Constitution
can be its laws and by-laws. Each person will be given the option
to subscribe to Texas, Inc. and become a citizen. That person would
have to be presented with a copy of the Constitution. Each person
would have the choice to accept the Constitution in writing. Once
accepted, each citizen would be, in essence, a shareholder in the
corporation, since a person could not be a citizen/shareholder without
signed consent. Each citizen would be issued one share of common
stock. That would also mean that those rejecting the constitution
could not be Texas citizens. Minors could not be Texas citizens
until they were of legal age to enter into a contract, usually eighteen
years of age.

Texas Inc.
might instead choose a for-profit corporation as its charter entity.
In that situation, the general public might be issued one share
of common stock when they sign their Constitution. The shareholder/citizens
could actually invest their own money in preferred stock. This would
provide the new nation with capital. Shareholders holding preferred
stock might receive dividends if Texas Inc. makes a profit.

As either corporate
structure would be closely-held private corporations, the charter
could specify that the stock could not be sold to non-citizens.
Only Texas citizens would be eligible to be investors.

The founders
of Texas, Inc. would have the right to present the offer of citizenship
to anyone anywhere on the planet. They could cherry pick the world
for the best and brightest talent! It would be a component of immigration
policy.

Voting could
be done by proxies, and the citizen could designate his elected
representative as his proxy in writing. Or he could vote himself
on any issue.

Think this
is unworkable? The largest corporations on the planet have been
running this way for over a hundred years. GM (pre-nationalization),
Exxon, Standard Oil, all of the Dow Jones top 30…they all work
this way just fine. Many have millions of shareholders, just like
Texas Inc. would have.

There
are many details that must be worked out that are not listed in
this article. But this article was not written to form a new government.
It was written to get you thinking about constitutions and how they
directly affect YOU.

Thomas Jefferson's
shining jewel, the Declaration of Independence, states that when
a government shows a long train of abuses meant to reduce the people
under absolute despotism, it is the people's right and duty to throw
off such government and provide new guards for their future security.
Texas Incorporated could be that new guard that secures the future
of a New Texas nation.

Texas, Incorporated.
An idea whose time is come.

Thanks and
honor go to Michael S. Rozeff, retired Professor of Finance, for
his wise counsel and comment. You can read his
brilliance at LewRockwell.com.

For a wider
analysis of this constitutional issue, read No
Treason, by Lysander Spooner, 1870.

October
24, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company.
He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children
and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist
website at: www.DumpDC.com.

Apparently,
Bloomberg sent investigators to gun shows in Tennessee and other
states, using tiny hidden cameras to record what they considered
illegal activity. They allege that guns from Southern states are
regularly found to be used in felonies in New York, and that it
is too easy for criminals to buy guns at gun shows.

The article
spotlighted one gun show held in Nashville that attracts 250 gun
dealers and up to 10,000 people every month. Gun dealers must be
licensed by the Bureau or Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF).
Background checks on buyers must be performed by dealers. Penalties
for selling guns to felons can include fines and imprisonment for
the dealer.

The New York
investigation showed that most dealers were law-abiding and that
most sales were legitimate. So, where is this alleged "loophole"
in the law?

It's found
in individual liberty and property rights.

Any of the
attendees at a gun show are free to offer their own guns for sale
to any other attendee. They may not represent themselves as dealers
under penalty of law. But nothing prevents them from striking up
a conversation with another attendee and offering to sell a privately
owned firearm. They also don't have to be bothered with the firearms
registration paperwork that a dealer must complete.

I've seen this
every time I've attended a gun show. There are people walking around
with guns on their shoulders with a "for sale" sign attached
to the gun. And any time a sale is made by an individual, they simply
take their transaction out to the parking lot where the money and
firearm changes hands. It is a completely legal transaction between
two individuals.

No background
checks need be done when an individual sale is made. So there is
the possibility that an individual could sell a firearm to a felon
without the seller's knowledge. There is also a chance that a buyer
could make a firearm purchase on behalf of another person.

But it seems
to me that the only "remedy" for this "loophole"
is to pass a federal law which only allows firearms to be bought
and sold through licensed dealers. And a law like that would be
no remedy at all. It would violate individual property rights in
a chilling way. It would also be unconstitutional, but that has
not ever slowed federal and state lawmakers from passing legislation
that infringes on the right to keep and bear arms.

The solution
for crime reduction is rescinding all gun laws that prohibit or
restrict the rights of any person to keep and bear arms. Armed populations
are polite populations. Ask Switzerland. Criminals are far less
likely to commit a crime when there is the likelihood that the victim
(or someone nearby) will be armed.

So, three cheers
for individual liberty and property rights! Hip, Hip, Hurrah!

October
10, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] is president of Abigail Morgan Austin Publishing Company.
He is married to “his Redhead” Julie, has three wonderful children
and three even more wonderful grandchildren. Visit his secessionist
website at: www.DumpDC.com.

Texas has as
good a chance at secession success as any…maybe even better. They
have a long tradition of independence, having fought for that independence
from Mexico in 1836. But in reality, Texas was only a nation for
nine years! They lost their minds in 1845 and assumed their place
in American statehood. They've been a subservient state for 164
years. But at least they WERE a nation before becoming a state.
Everyone makes mistakes. Forgive them.

So Texas could
have the chance of becoming a new nation. But will Austin, the state
capitol, become a beacon of liberty for the rest of the world, or
simply a smaller version of Washington DC?

24.6 million
people live in Texas. Let's estimate that half are registered voters.
If the Nationalists can get a referendum for secession on a state-wide
ballot someday, then about 6.2 million Texans will have to vote
"Yes" for secession. That's a pretty tall order. Not impossible,
but daunting.

But that's
when the work begins.

The leaders
of New Texas will need a brain trust of legal minds, economists
and policy strategists that can assist them as they take their first
steps into a very new world. I recommend to those New Texas leaders
that they put The Mises Institute on their speed dial. The Mises
Institute is a liberty-promoting, free market think tank in Auburn,
Alabama. The faculty and staff are the most cutting-edge thinkers
on earth today.

Listed below
are just 20 of the issues that Texans would have to settle in order
to build a new nation.

1. A formal
Declaration of Independence and Secession would have to be written
and ratified, likely by the legislature and signed by the Governor.
A date for presenting that document to someone like the sitting
US President would have to be chosen.

2. The actual
form of the new government must be chosen. Will it be a Constitutional
Republic…a Parliament…what? Remember that this is a new constitution
for a single nation, not a confederacy of nations. The new constitution
doesn't need to be articles of confederation, but should be more
like the Virginia Constitution of 1776 or the Swiss canton system.

3. Will all
the existing politicians in Texas have to stand for election in
the new government? The present legislators in Austin may be infected
with statism and opponents of sovereignty. I nominate Ron Paul as
the first President of New Texas.

4. Monetary
policy is the keystone of the new nation. All commerce, and the
very existence of New Texas hangs on this one issue. But if Texas
decides to adopt any monetary policy other than 100% gold dollar,
it will have swallowed the poison pill of Keynesianism before its
life even begins. No government in the history of mankind has devalued
its money and survived. Not One.

4. Courts system – Will the new Texas begin with a clean slate, or will it adopt
the corrupt American court precedents existing today? You can predict
that entrenched interests in the legal system will attempt to tie
up the secession in court forever. Where will Texas find judges
that are pro-secession? Will Texans allow themselves to be drawn
into Federal legal battles when the US should have no jurisdiction
in secession?

5. What method
of tax collection will the new nation choose? Any income tax will
likely foment yet another revolution.

6. There are
a lot of Federal lands and military bases in Texas. Will the new
nation buy them from Washington or simply confiscate them? And why
should the New Texas national government presume that it should
own the former Federal lands and bases? Should they not be sold
to private parties?

7. The new
Texas will have to create an immigration policy. Not only is there
the existing problem with the Texas/Mexican border, but hundreds
of thousands of Americans will want to relocate to Texas to take
part in the birth of the new nation.

8. Millions
of Texans presently receive Social Security benefits of some sort.
What will happen to their benefits after secession? Will Washington
cut them off in retaliation? Will Texas assume that obligation?

9. Privatization
of state services – will Texas try to set up new bureaucracies to
deliver mail, collect the taxes, etc? The free market always performs
better than government, and no compelling reason can be made for
government service.

9. Law Enforcement
is already entrenched in every niche and corner of Texas. Will the
new Texas continue with the failed War on Drugs, or recognize that
drugs are morally equal to alcohol and lift its prohibition?

10. What will
the New Texas do about a military? Will it embrace a national militia
like Switzerland, or establish Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines?

11. Foreign
policy issues will involve border states and other sovereign nations.
Will New Texas make the same foreign policy blunders that Washington
loves to make?

12. Will New
Texas assume the liability of a Medicare/Medicaid system?

13. Will New
Texas protect religious liberty and eschew religious subsidy? After
all, there is no practical reason that religious organizations and
churches should enjoy tax-free status at the expense of the rest
of the population. This issue will be decided as New Texas forms
tax policy.

14. Insurance
makes the world go around. New Texas will need the wisdom of Solomon
in its Department of Insurance to properly regulate insurance companies.

15. Securities
law must be enacted. But copying the corrupt FTC and SEC won't work.

16. How many
of the existing US Cabinet offices will find a place in the New
Texas government? New Texas would probably run fine without most
of the unconstitutional bureaucracies operating in Washington today.
Copying Washington won't work.

17. Texas is
a microcosm of all the environmental issues facing America today.
The "greenies" will fight hard to continue some of the
dumb environmental laws in New Texas. They have money and they are
patient.

18. New Texas
will have to make an early decision on public education. Will New
Texas continue the failed policies of the federal Department of
Education and the deathgrip of the teacher's unions?

19. Texas
has great colleges and universities. What will happen to them when
Federal money dries up? More importantly, will Texas football teams
be thrown out of American football conferences and the BCS? God
help us.

20. New Texas
will need an intelligent Energy policy which embraces nuclear energy,
oil and gas, and alternative sources. Texas must throw off the American
regulations that prohibit new nuclear power plants. 100% of the
electricity for New Texas should come from nuclear power.

New Texas has
the real chance to become the freest place on earth. But it won't
achieve that status if it simply becomes Washington West. The reason
for secession is Washington and statism. The men and women crafting
a New Texas must keep their vision of liberty in our lifetimes always
before them as they do their holy work.

DumpDC…Six
Letters That Can Change History.

October
3, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] owns www.InsuranceQuoteHQ.com
in Marietta, Georgia. He is married to “his redhead” Julie, and
has three wonderful children, and three even more wonderful grandchildren.

This time,
the captor is the Federal Government in Washington, and the 50 states
are its captives.

The powers-that-be
in Washington are accelerating the destruction of the United States
of America. And the state governments stand by idly.

President Obama
is proving to be "the new Boss, same as the old Boss."

• He has not
  removed troops from Iraq to end our military presence there. Most
  troops that were removed from Iraq were redeployed to Afghanistan.
  The war in Afghanistan has been escalated. From that war, the
  American military has expanded that war into Pakistan. The fighting
  in Pakistan has a very real possibility of destabilizing the Pakistan/India
  relationship, which has been a decades-long powder keg.
• The operation
  of the American Embassy in Iraq, the largest embassy in the history
  of the world, continues unimpeded. America's not leaving, folks.
• The American
  military is presently building new US military bases in Colombia,
  South America.
• Washington
  is still working behind the scenes to cause unrest in Iran, and
  an air strike is still an option. Covert military ops have been
  happening inside Iran for years.
• Washington
  has established an African Command for the US military, further
  expanding American hegemony worldwide.
• Congress
  is spending money like there is an infinite supply of it. They
  now own General Motors. They've bailed out carmakers, investment
  banking companies, lenders and brokerages with hundreds of millions
  of dollars that they don't have.
• The Cap
  and Trade legislation, which would be the largest tax increase
  in the history of the USA, is still alive.
• The Congress
  wants to pass health care legislation which will change health
  care in America, and not for the good.
• The Obama
  Administration is surrounding itself with advisors who are avowed
  Communists, Socialists, and Marxists.
• The Federal
  Reserve continues to operate unchecked, with no oversight by anyone
  whatsoever.
• The Transportation
  Safety Administration tightly regulates all air travel within
  the borders of the United States. Piss them off and you don't
  fly.
• The manipulation
  of the American economy by Washington continues. Between Federal
  Reserve monetary policy and a Congress that never saw a bill it
  would not fund, unemployment rises. Foreclosures mushroom. Bank
  failures increase. Bankruptcy is at an all-time high.

I could go
on and on, but I think I've made my point.

Most Americans
SEEM to be unhappy with the way our nation is being run right now.
Obama's approval numbers have slid to a place that only about 50%
of those polled approve of his work. And NO ONE trusts Congress.

The tyranny
of Washington continues. Washington has long forgotten that the
Federal government was invented by the States to serve THEM.

The tail has
wagged the dog since Lincoln lived in the White House.

The "State
of the Union" means more than a propagandist's dream on a January
evening in Congress. The state of our Union is desperately bad and
getting worse.

How much longer
will the states allow themselves to be victims of a kidnapping?

How much longer
will the states accept the devastation of our way of life that is
pouring out of Washington like feces from a sewer pipe?

How much longer
will states tolerate being ruled by an unconstitutional military-backed
junta that has stolen our nation?

How much longer
will states allow their own citizens to be taxed to death by a government
no longer accountable to those very citizens?

When will states
awaken from their long slumber and once again realize that they
are sovereign and independent, and that they have the power to shake
off the heavy burden of Federal tyranny?

Will it take
hyperinflation to wake up the states? How high will the unemployment
rate have to be? How high will the taxes have to get? How many unfunded
Federal mandates will have to be imposed? Will a new law about firearm
confiscation or regulation of ammunition be enough? What if Washington
decides to once again make it illegal for citizens to own gold,
and begins to confiscate gold?

Will the states
continue to be the indentured servants of the Washington plantation
until the day that the plantation collapses? Then, what will the
states do? Will they become sovereign once again and assert their
freedom, or simply look for another "Massa?"

The Boy Scouts
of America have a two-word slogan: "Be Prepared." Every
ten-year-old scout in America knows that he should prepare for both
good and bad. The sovereign states of the united States of America
would do well to adopt the Boy Scout slogan and start preparing
for an uncertain future.

My prediction
is that the majority of the American states are so inured to the
Federal shackles that they will stay with Washington no matter what.
The states have developed a love for their own captors…the Stockholm
Syndrome lives.

September
11, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] owns www.InsuranceQuoteHQ.com
in Marietta, Georgia. He is married to “his redhead” Julie, and
has three wonderful children, and three even more wonderful grandchildren.

This article
will not address the repressive governmental strictures on travel
in the USA. You can get that from another source.

Domestic
Travel

If you're on
a driving vacation, here are some tips.

• Get the
  car checked over before you begin driving. Make sure the tires
  are good and properly inflated. Make sure the engine is running
  correctly. If your car is old and unreliable, seriously consider
  renting a car for the trip. Nothing can ruin a trip more quickly
  than a car breakdown.
• Prepare
  an emergency box for the trunk. Put in flares, a can of tire inflator/sealant,
  jumper cables, a gallon of premixed engine coolant, a toolbox,
  a flashlight with extra batteries, a blanket and duct tape. Add
  more if you can think of stuff you want.
• Make sure
  that your auto insurance premiums are paid and your coverage is
  current. If you don't have Emergency Road Service on your policy,
  either have it added or buy it from someone like AAA.

Follow the
tips you'll find below. They are as useful when traveling domestically
as they are internationally.

International
Travel

Most places
you will likely travel are tourist areas that will have relatively
good safety. However, some like to travel to out-of-the-way places.
Just realize that there are risks you take whenever you travel.
The greatest risk you take while traveling is being nave and trusting.
So, here are some tips. Each one could be an article all by itself.

• Pack light…then
  pack even lighter. Don't take big suitcases. Try to get by on
  the smallest luggage you can. A rucksack or backpack would be
  best. You'd be better served to take extra cash and buy clothing
  at your destination. Leave it there when you come home, or buy
  a suitcase over there and bring the stuff home. Don't you need
  mementos of the trip?
• Carry-on
  bags: Keep your bag under your seat or between your legs. If you
  are going to place it in the overhead compartment, try to place
  it ahead of your seat location, so you can see whoever reaches
  into the compartment.
• Rucksack/backpack
  rules: line the bottom with a towel or jacket. Bad guys like to
  slit the bottom of backpacks with a razor and then follow you
  until your stuff falls out. Bring with you or buy a daypack, a
  smaller version of the backpack just for day trips. Same rules
  apply.
• Don’t look
  wealthy; don’t flaunt your valuables. Don't even take valuables
  with you.
• Never leave
  a computer, PDA or other electronics in your hotel room. Put it
  in the hotel safe or take it with you. You do realize that even
  the finest hotels can have employees that steal, even from the
  hotel safe, don't you?
• Keep both
  hands free. Carrying stuff makes you vulnerable to getting your
  pocket picked.
• Make copies
  of your passport photo page, vaccination certificate, travelers
  check receipts, airline ticket, driver’s license, student card,
  YHA card, etc. Leave one set of the copies at home. Carry a couple
  of copies in various places in your luggage. Take a certified
  copy of your birth certificate to help you get a new passport.
  Keep a list in your trip address book of the numbers of your insurance
  policies, bank accounts, social security or national identity
  number and credit card numbers.
• If you buy
  new travelers checks, train or airline tickets along the way,
  not only save the receipts (separate from the checks), but keep
  a separate note of all the check numbers and when you spend them.
  Having exact information will help in getting them replaced if
  lost or stolen.
• Keep your
  passport, credit cards and cash next to your skin. Keep them in
  front of you, not in your back pocket or a fanny pack on your
  fanny. Sleep with them. The best solution is a "passport
  bag" that you hang around your neck, inside your clothing.
• Keep a small
  billfold with your "day money" in your front pocket.
• If you buy
  enough stuff that you need another suitcase to carry it home,
  seriously consider boxing it and shipping it home.
• Stay in
  physical contact with your bags unless they are locked in your
  room or stowed safely on the vehicle of transport.
• Every time
  you stand up, glance back to see what you left behind.
• YOU carry
  your luggage onto the bus, train, truck, or taxi with you. Don't
  allow a porter or stranger to take your bag for you. You might
  not ever see it again.
• When you
  buy a ticket, be sure you actually receive a ticket.
• Don’t rent
  a hotel room that is not secure; lock your room every time you
  leave it.
• Rinse out
  your own laundry in the room, and hang it up inside the room.
  It will usually dry overnight. But sending out your laundry invites
  theft.
• Be aware
  of your surroundings everywhere you go. Don't be so absorbed in
  sightseeing that you become blind to what's happening next to
  you.
• Don't agree
  to carry ANYTHING home for ANYONE, no matter how bad their sob
  story or who it is. If they want it badly enough, they can ship
  it. If you get caught with contraband in your bags, it's your
  backside that will go to jail.
• Always count
  your change after you make a purchase.
• If you are
  in a bar or restaurant, NEVER EVER leave your drink or meal unattended.
  Drugs can be squirted into a drink in a millisecond. Don't accept
  free drinks from anyone.

If you will
simply be highly aware of your surroundings at all times, you will
likely be pretty safe as you travel.

July
6, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] has an insurance claims practice in Atlanta, Georgia.
He is married to “his redhead” Julie, and has three wonderful children,
and three even more wonderful grandchildren.

In Article
II, Section I of the Constitution, the President's Oath of Office
is written as follows: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that
I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United
States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution of the United States."

Thirty-seven
words. How hard could this be?

Article VI,
Section 4, states that the other elected officials, such as Representatives,
Senators, the Vice President and Federal judges must swear an oath,
but it does not list a particular oath or affirmation. I guess they
can just make one up.

So, I watched
Tuesday with great amusement as Joseph Biden swore an oath to be
Vice President. But the Oath of Office that he swore was lifted
from the Oath of Office for Military Officers, which is:

"I, Joseph
Biden, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend
the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign
or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;
that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations
or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge
the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help
me God.”

There is no
Oath of Office for Vice President! Only for President!

Why do I bring
this up…other than for the entertainment value it held?

Because it
serves to prove that the Oaths of Office sworn in the Congress,
Senate, by Supreme Court justices, the Vice President and President
ARE MEANINGLESS!!

Even when the
Presidential Oath of Office is done correctly, think about these
questions:

1. To whom
   is the Oath sworn? Answer: no one specifically.
2. Does the
   Constitution mandate a spoken or written Oath? Answer: neither.
3. Does the
   President sign an Oath? Answer: not to my knowledge.
4. Is there
   a contract between any two parties for specific performance for
   any President? Answer: none
5. Does the
   President execute an employment contract between himself and any
   other party? Answer: no
6. Is there
   any person or group of persons who could enforce the Presidential
   Oath? Answer: The Senate. In Article II, Section 4, the President
   shall be removed upon Impeachment and Conviction for Treason,
   Bribery or other High Crimes and Misdemeanors. However, the Senators
   have no stomach for impeachment and will likely never impeach
   and remove another seated President, no matter what he does. Clinton
   and GW Bush were grateful for this lack of Senatorial backbone.
7. If the Oath
   was spoken on the Capitol steps, and then again in the Map Room,
   then who was it recited to…and does it matter? Answers: no one
   and no.

For additional
information about the Constitution, read Lysander Spooner's book,
No
Treason, written in 1870.

So, why does
anyone bother with this charade?

Answer: for
appearance's sake. The American people love entertainment, and eschew
knowledge. This theatrical performance makes Americans feel like
their government works, and that their votes count for something.

January
24, 2009

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] has an insurance claims practice in Atlanta, Georgia.
He is married to “his redhead” Julie, and has three wonderful children,
and three even more wonderful grandchildren.

American in 2008 are the most over-regulated humans in human history. Maybe the Europeans and Chinese match us in regulations, but that would surprise me a lot. Liberty in America is dying "the death by a thousand cuts…" times 10 or 100.

We as a people are so over-regulated that we scarcely notice, much like not noticing the air we breathe. I guess it’s something you begin learning at the earliest ages, and pick up more regulations as you grow older…usually without a whimper.

Recently I tried to figure out one minute of my day…any day…that was not touched by some governmental regulation or edict. So, I carefully did a diary of everything that I did on a workday.

Here’s the workday schedule and the regulators:

6:00 am

Electric (Public Service Commission "PSC") clock alarm goes off (Consumer Product Safety Commission "CPSC")

6:01 am

Get up out of my bed (CPSC) and stand on the carpet (OSHA, CPSC). Walk into the bathroom (Bldg. code).

Turn on light (PSC)

Use the toilet and flush (building code and EPA regs on tank size and flush rate).

Use a toothbrush (CPSC) and toothpaste (FDA).

Turn on the shower (fluoride-treated city water, permit to drill a well in country) and step into it (bldg code, Anti-scalding regs for shower fixtures).

Soap (CPSC, EPA), rinse, shut off the water (EPA).

Towel dry (Federal Hazardous Substances Act for color dyes).

Step out onto carpet (Federal Flammable Fabrics Act), stand in front of vanity sink (building codes) and mirror (lead content, EPA).

Apply deodorant (EPA, volatile organic compounds "VOC," FDA)

Use a Q-tip in my ears (FDA cosmetics regs)

Take my daily maintenance medication (FDA) for a medical condition.

Walk out of the bath, back to bedroom (bldg. code)

Open the chest of drawers (EPA for VOCs on varnish). Take out my underwear (import tariff)

Walk into the dressing room, turn on light (PSC).

Put on my underwear (CPSC tag regs) and socks (EPA regs on dyes).

Remove a dress shirt (import tariff) from a hanger (EPA regs on steel manufacturer) in the closet (bldg. code).

Remove a pair of slacks (CPSC) from a plastic hanger (EPA) in the closet (bldg. code).

Put on my shoes (import tariff), tie the laces (CPSC regs on "aglets," the tips on the shoelace).

Put on my leather belt (EPA regs on leather tanning).

Walk out of the dressing room, turn off the light, walk down a seven-step stair (bldg. code) to the main level of the home (zoning statutes).

Walk through the den (bldg. code) to the kitchen (USDA food regs), turn on the light (EPA VOCs regs for the paint on the light fixture).

Take my vitamins (FDA), washed down with vegetable juice (EPA regs on pesticides for growers) from a 10 ounce (Bureau of Weights and Measures) juice glass (import tariff).

Leave kitchen (stove natural gas regs by PSC), turn out light (PSC).

Turn on the ceiling fan with lights (EPA regs on disposal of Compact Fluorescent Bulbs) in the den, open the back door (bldg code) and let the two dogs (county dog licenses) out into the back yard where there is an empty in-ground swimming pool (area-wide drought, city water department ban on outdoor watering and filling swimming pools).

Walk through the den (new regs on digital TVs), enter my home office (IRS deductions for home business).

Sit down in an office chair (import tariff) at my desk (import tariff).

Turn on my computer (EPA regs on computer disposal.

Check my emails (Patriot Act).

Go online (Patriot Act) and read the local newspaper (FCC) at their website (Patriot Act).

Turn on the TV (FCC) and watch Robin Meade on Headline News (FCC), fed to our TV sets by DirecTV (Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999).

6:45 am

Shut everything down, walk to the foyer (bldg. code), pick up my laptop bag (import tariff) and keys (EPA regs on steel), leave the house at 6:47 am (Eastern Daylight Saving Time, passed by Congress), lock the door (bldg. code on locks).

Open my car door (mandatory side door airbag) with my electronic keyfob (FCC).

Sit down in my Mercedes (import tariff), start the engine (EPA regs on fuel).

Turn on the radio (FCC) to my favorite station (FCC).

Drive (state driver's license) over paved streets (city/county statutes) and highways (DOT), filled with stop lights (local ordinances) and other traffic controls (DOT regs on sign size and color).

Drive through an intersection where there are red light cameras installed (city ordinance only for massive revenue collection).

Drive south on GA-400, go through toll booth (DOT), pay fifty cents.

7:40

Arrive at the parking garage (city bldg. code) for my office building (C corp for bldg owner), park the car (city regs on garage capacity).

Walk past six unused premium parking spaces (ADA) in the parking garage to the front door (bldg. code) of the office building (business license for building designer).

Take the elevator (city inspectors) up to the 6th floor (fire codes), exit the elevator (inspection certificate posted in elevator).

7:45

Insert the key (Worker's Comp law for the key manufacturer) in the office (Workers Comp for me) door (bldg code on height of lockset) and unlock it, and enter the office (bldg. code).

Flip the light switch (bldg. code on switch covers), walk across carpet (EPA on carpet dyes) to my private office (bldg. code), turn on the lights (PSC).

Sit (ADA regs on ergonomics) in my office chair (sales tax on chair) at my desk (sales tax).

Turn on the computer (anti-trust regs against Microsoft).

Check voicemail (Telecommunications Act regs on phone company).

8:00 to 12:00

Work as a claims adjuster (state license), use phone (Patriot Act), internet (Patriot Act), fax (import tariff), computer (Patriot Act), printer (import tariff), scanner (import tariff), paper (EPA regs on smokestack emissions at paper mills) and ink (EPA).

12:00 to 1:00

Eat lunch (USDA food regs) either in lunchroom (bldg. code) or at local restaurant (Health Dep't).

1:00 to 5:00

Work as a claims adjuster (state license), same as above.

5:05

Leave the office, get in my car (State license plate).

5:05 to 6:00

Drive north on GA-400 (DOT), go through toll booth (DOT), pay fifty cents.

Arrive home, take mail (postage regs) from mailbox (postal regs on height of mailbox).

6:00 to 7:00

Greet my wife (marriage license) and son (IRS tax deduction), watch the news (FCC), check email (Patriot Act).

7:00 to 8:00

Dinner in the dining room with glass of wine (State liquor tax).

8:00 to 10:00

10:00 pm

Bedtime, brush teeth (FDA), disrobe (Flammable Fabrics Act on my jammies), get into bed (mattress tags), set alarm (CPSC) and turn out light (PSC).

10:00 to 6:00 am

Head on pillow ("remove tag under penalty of law"), sleep while breathing air (EPA regs on indoor air quality).

Friends, I challenge you to find ONE activity…JUST ONE…in your entire life that is not regulated by government. And don’t tell me it’s “your thoughts,” either. There are “hate crimes” all over America, both state and federal. So, even your thoughts are regulated.

No exercise in self-analysis should be so infuriating and so eye-opening as this exercise. But the question naturally arises, “How do we rid ourselves of all these regulations?”

That is a topic for another day.

Russell D. Longcore [send him mail] has an insurance claims practice in Atlanta, Georgia. He is married to “his redhead” Julie, and has three wonderful children, and three even more wonderful grandchildren.

DIGG THIS

This election
cycle has become interminably long and boring. The worst possible
candidates from the Republican and Democrat parties have floated
to the top, much like what you see when you glance down into a toilet
bowl.

This situation
in which the nation finds itself is not uncommon. The state primaries,
caucuses and major party conventions have a long and checkered history
of corruption. Primaries, caucuses and conventions have been occurring
for scores of decades.

The “political
system” virtually guarantees that the most corrupt, the best liars,
the most compromising, becomes the presumptive candidate. Both candidates
are also the politician of their party most willing to violate the
Constitution by continuing an unlawful war, and by initiating and
approving the highest amount of unconstitutional Federal spending.

There’s an
old saying, “Actions speak louder than words.” Said another way,
“If you want to know what a person values, don’t listen to what
they say, only watch what they do.” Think about it. The political
system in America is populated with men and women who give lip service
to the Constitution, but then go on to vote for every unconstitutional
spending bill presented to them. They talk about the virtues of
our constitutional republic, and then act to subvert and violate
that very system of government.

A pure constitutionalist
has no place, and no political base, in America in 2008. Consider
the candidacy of Rep. Ron Paul during the Republican primary season.
Paul couldn’t get arrested, much less have a legitimate shot at
winning or even to be noticed by mainstream media.

So why do I
strongly urge you to stop Voting?

1. The illegitimacy
of the vote. Look at the situation of paper ballots versus electronic
voting. It has been proved beyond doubt that voting machines all
across America have been manipulated to change outcomes of elections.
In light of the proven fact that you cannot be sure your vote counts,
why continue voting?

2. Illegitimacy
part II. Consider the incontrovertible facts of national elections…and
many times, state and local elections. In 2004, about 125 million
people had their votes counted. (Many hundreds of thousands more
people actually voted, but their votes did not count for a variety
of reasons…don’t get me started!) But elections for decades now
break in this statistical fashion:

40% vote
Republican

40% vote
Democrat

20% undecided
are in the middle.

Realistically,
the Republican and Democrat voting blocks cancel each other out
automatically. So if you’re a registered Republican or Democrat,
your vote is wasted. The time you spend voting is wasted. Tell that
to all of the people you know who tell you that voting for a third-party
candidate is a wasted vote!

It is the 20%
in the middle that decides the election. Specifically, 10% plus
one vote decides the winner.

Look at the
rough numbers from the 2004 Presidential race:

Total votes
125,000,000

Republican 50,000,000

Democrat 50,000,000

Undecided 25,000,000

“Undecided”
statistically splits in half:

Winner 12,500,001
(10% plus one vote)

Loser 12,499,999
(10% minus one vote)

So, in a nation
of 300 million people, a little over 12 million people, or 4%, actually
decide the Presidential election.

The statistics
fall much the same in elections in which a candidate identifies
with a political party. If you have a local state legislative race
where Republicans and Democrats face each other, that race will
be decided in much the same way as a national race.

3. Consider
that, under Robert’s Rules of Order, an organization holding a vote
must have a quorum in place for the vote to be legitimate. But,
in American political elections, where’s the quorum?

Presidential
candidates regularly consider their election “a mandate from the
people.” But think about this: How small would the total number
of voters have to be before a candidate would refuse to take office?
If 100 million voters stayed away from the polls in November, and
only 25 million nationwide voted instead of 125 million…would
the winning candidate shun the victory? My gut feeling is that the
candidate would still accept the outcome. And why not? There’s NOTHING
in the law that I know of that prevents the winner from taking office…a
veritable bottomless pit.

With an election
system in place in America that is hopelessly corrupt, participation
as a voter only encourages those in power…and those seeking power…to
continue with the corrupt and illegitimate election system.

So, if you
continue voting, you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.

July
28, 2008

Russell
D. Longcore [send him
mail] has an insurance claims practice in Atlanta, Georgia.
He is married to “his redhead” Julie, and has three wonderful children,
and three even more wonderful grandchildren.