DON'T TRUST GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT YOUR BEST INTERESTS

Do you think our government can be trusted? If you do, you haven't been
paying attention. Let me cite a few recent examples where government
officials have shown that they have no regard for the truth.

First we have the twisted half-truths in the government sponsored drug
advertisements run on TV during the Super Bowl. These ads, now being run in
newspapers across the country, claim that people who use illegal drugs are
financing terrorism, because some terrorists sell drugs to make money.

But according to the Hoover Institution, it is the failed War on Drugs that
has created a black market and driven up the price of illegal drugs by as
much as 17,000 percent. It is the failed War on Drugs that has turned
ordinary, cheap plants like marijuana and poppies into fantastically
lucrative black market products which terrorists or anybody else can sell
for scads of money.

For the government to claim that drug users are financing terrorism is like
claiming that the New York Port Authority financed the destruction of the
World Trade Center. It is true that if the Port Authority hadn't paid for
it, it would not have existed and so could not have been destroyed. But
that is not what caused the destruction.

Next we have Rep. Fred Upton telling us how good the Shays-Meehan Campaign
Reform Bill will be for us. The very name of the bill is a lie. It isn't a
reform bill at all. Its proper name should be "The Shays-Meehan Office
Holder's Protection and Preservation Act," because that is what it really
is. Incumbents who seek re-election already win 90 percent of the time.
This bill will just increase that percentage. Shays-Meehan is just another
piece of self-serving legislation whose real purpose is to make government
office holders even less accountable to the people than they are already.

At least part of the bill, and in my opinion the whole thing, is
unconstitutional. Article I, Section 4, of the Constitution gives Congress
the right to regulate the manner of holding elections. But, campaigning is
not part of "holding elections." The Constitution does not give Congress
any authority to control what people seeking office, or those who support
them, may say or do, or how they may spend their money to get their
opinions out.

The bill will prevent challengers from attacking an office holder by name
within 60 days of an election. That is the very best time for a challenger
to point out an incumbent's mistakes. The two-month period preceding an
election is when the people who do pay attention to these things really do
pay attention.

Then there is the fact that government officials are able to get lots of
free publicity. Think about how many articles you have seen in The
Herald-Palladium about Fred Upton. All he has to do is come home for the
weekend and talk to somebody. Bingo, a story, with pictures, and that is a
big advantage. He doesn't need a law to muzzle the rest of us on top of that.

The bill will also hit third parties, like the Libertarian Party, pretty
hard. They do not have the resources that the Republicans and Democrats do.
I personally explained this to Fred over a year ago. But, I guess he doesn'
t mind making it harder for Libertarians to get their message out. After
all, he isn't a Libertarian so why should he care?

Finally, let's talk about the new "Office of Strategic Influence" that has
recently been created within the Defense Department. The mission of the
office is to manipulate the release of information, that is tell lies, as
the government sees fit. Of course, the lies are only going to be told to
foreigners, only when necessary, and only to further what our government
sees as good objectives. Sort of reminds me of the income tax. They said it
was only a temporary tax, only a tax on the very rich, would never even go
as high as 10 percent, and was needed for good objectives.

Now, if you still have any doubts about government lying to us, think about
Ruby Ridge, Waco, or closer to home, Rainbow Farm. I rest my case.