Excellent Expose on the Utah "Gay Marriage Amendment"

Here is an excellent writeup on Utah's proposed Amendment 3 (aka "The Gay Marriage Amendment") from my good friends and freedom fighters at Accountability Utah.

http://www.accountabilityutah.org/IssuesAlerts/IssuesFocus/2004/Marriage082804.htm
Is Caesar's Marriage Idolatrous?
Foreword: Accountability Utah vehemently opposes Constitutional Amendment 3 dealing with the question of marriage and the rights of couples. Accountability Utah team members are divided, however, on the particular reasons for their opposition. Accountability Utah wishes to provide two different perspectives for readers to consider. Topics 1-7 provide the view of several team members. Topic 8 outlines where other team members part company and view things differently.

Summary of Topics 1-7: We oppose both sentences of Constitutional Amendment 3. Government proponents feverishly sell this amendment as a way to protect the traditional family. This is a farce and a smoke screen. This amendment represents unjust government force, the suppression of "unsanctioned" citizens — polygamists, fornicators, and especially homosexuals — who are deemed to be "undesirable," and the effort to increase the size of government in the name of God. To combat this deception, we also discuss homosexuality in context with society.

Summary of Topic 8: We disagree with the notion implied by our colleagues that homosexuality is any less criminal or destructive to society than are crimes such as theft and adultery. While we do not advocate government peeking into bedrooms to monitor sexual behavior, we do not believe that homosexuals are entitled to any right to publicly promote their lifestyle. We also believe that we are morally justified in prohibiting homosexuals from adopting children and marrying.

Read the rest by following this link.

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Bush Says Kerry Soft On Weather

Electing Kerry Is Just What Terrible Weather Wants, Says GOP

President Bush, while touring hurricane-ravaged Florida, called John Kerry "soft on weather" and claimed that "bad, bad weather" would be absolutely thrilled to see Kerry in office this November.

"That's just what Charley wants," said Bush.

Bush announced plans to invade Cuba and Jamaica in what he called a "preemptive strike" against future Category 4 hurricanes.

"I don't know why these countires want to send their bad weather here," said Bush. "But they've gotta stop it."

President Bush hailed the Governor of Florida as an "ally in the war on weather" and asked Congress to send $100 billion dollars to Florida because "we reward our friends -- that's what you do to friends, you reward 'em."

In other news, today FEMA awarded Halliburton a no-bid contract to rebuild Florida.

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Uncle Sam Hides More and More From Americans

By LANCE GAY
Aug 25, 2004, 22:44
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_5115.shtml

Three years after 9/11, the shroud of government secrecy is spreading as agencies strip information from their Web sites and withhold public information on the grounds it could help terrorists.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, for instance, announced on its Web site this month that it will no longer provide its public scorecard of security at U.S. power plants.

The agency has traditionally withheld details of security problems that federal inspectors find during routine inspections of power plants. But it used the scorecard every three months to provide the public a measurement of how power plants were doing. However, the panel decided even that limited information will no longer be published.

"In the post-9/11 environment, we continue to review all information," said commission spokesman Scott Burnell.

Having cable TV problems? Cell phone blacking out? Don't look to the Federal Communications Commission for reasons why.

It voted to withhold from the public any news of communication blackouts involving cable TV operators, satellite operators and telephone companies on the grounds that such information could provide "a road map for terrorists."

Releasing such information, the FCC said, would "seriously undermine national defense and public safety."

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says he is considering removing hazardous-material signs from trains and trucks because the placards "could help a criminal or a terrorist identify a target." In a notice published in the Aug. 16 Federal Register, Ridge asked the industry and other interested parties to comment on that plan and on other changes in security measures they would like to see.

Steven Aftergood, who monitors government secrecy for the American Federation of Scientists, said that taking hazmat signs from containers is a particularly silly idea.

"It's poorly conceived because it places at risk the lives of millions of Americans," said Aftergood. The hazardous-material signs are there to alert police and firemen to take precautions if the trucks or trains are in an accident.

Congress is considering even more sweeping transportation security measures.

As part of a highway bill now in a House-Senate conference committee, lawmakers are pushing Senate-passed language that would allow the government to withhold any information from the public that would be "detrimental to the security of transportation, transportation facilities or infrastructure, or transportation employees."

Karla Garrett Harshaw, president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, says that the provision is so broadly drafted it could lead to the withholding of any information on contracts involving taxpayer-funded highway projects.

The Environmental Defense organization protests that the Department of Transportation could use the provision to withhold information on hazardous-waste spills on the basis that it might provide information to terrorists about system vulnerabilities, and to restrict information about rail and transportation routes for nuclear waste.

Moves to keep secret more government information come in the wake of the report by the 9/11 Commission, which found the government already had too much information that was over-classified. The Information and Security Oversight Office, an arm of the National Archives that oversees government classification programs, reported that the classification of government documents is increasing.

In its first two years, the Bush administration made 44.5 million decisions to classify material, about the same number made in the last four years of President Bill Clinton's term in office.

A coalition of Washington watchdog groups, led by the Project on Government Oversight, said in a new report that government over-classification costs taxpayers $6.5 billion a year. Each document costs $459 to secure and store.

"Openness both preserves democracy and saves money," said Richard Blum, author of the report, who contends secrecy is often used to hide government mistakes and embarrassing information voters are entitled to know.

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Cartoon

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Can you help me understand how gun ownership helps?

My good friend Fran Tully has posted a great Q&A about gun ownership on his blog, http://freewest.blogspot.com/. I highly suggest reading it.

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Statement From Jeffrey "The Hunter" Jordan

As you may well have heard by now, my lawyers and I concluded a plea bargain with the Ashland county prosecutor's office Friday 8/21. The reason that this is the first you have heard of it is complete secrecy was part of the deal, for reasons which completely escape me. Be that as it may, everything went off without a hitch. The settlement included no jail time (well, technically a suspended sentence), a year's unsupervised probation, a $500 fine, and $300-odd dollars in court costs. *All* of my seized property is to be returned; specifically including my pistols, ammo, rifle, swords, and electronics.

So that there is no misunderstanding on this, everyone should be aware that I consider this settlement at best a damn fine fighting retreat, not a victory. The vitally important philosophical and legal points involved in the case are going to go unstated. From a personal and practical standpoint this is a very good result, but from a long-term viewpoint of preserving freedom this is a far less than optimal outcome. But I have a pretty strong aversion to ignoring the advice of people I am paying large sums of money for their expertise, and the *unanimous* opinion of the legal team was to accept this deal. This is by no means the end of the legal struggle, but it *does* mark the end of my own personal jeopardy.

Let me take this opportunity to as publicly as possible thank my lawyer Jim Brightbill for all his hard work, and congratulate him on securing such a favorable deal. It has been a long slog through a lot of twists and turns, but we made it. Let me also thank the other members of the legal team; I am only going to mention my sister Brenda by name because I haven't cleared mentioning the other 5 with them. The thanks are no less heartfelt for being safely anonymous. And she deserves special mention as the one who was there for me when I had only 1 phone call to try to begin fighting back in a very bad situation. She and the rest of my family and close friends have given me the emotional support that is so essential in a situation like this, and there is no way I can ever thank them enough.

Carl Bussjaeger deserves special mention for his tireless work in speaking out when I was muzzled. It's been frustrating at times, brother knight, but you hung in there and never gave up, even when the only answer I could give you was "I can't talk about that". Special thanks to all my friends both old and new, who went out of their way to offer every sort of support imaginable - from JR & EC who took me out to dinner, movies, and banana splits more times than you can believe, to DB & ES who called periodically to make sure I was holding up and keep me posted on what the activist community was doing, EL, JL, & SC for all your behind-the-scenes work, Louis James & Sunni Maravillosa for dropping everything to kick things off back when this all started, FreeMatt & Charlie for scaring the hell out of me in my hotel room that night, "Mama" Sue for both publicity and personal support, all the members of LRT & TCF who jumped in whenever needed, and Angel Shamaya, Aaron Zelman, and Claire Wolfe for consistent and principled support and advice throughout this ordeal.

I am going to attempt to individually mention all the fine organizations that rallied to my side. FMN, JPFO, ISIL, FIJA, KABA, GO-NH, GOA, AFA, LRT, RRND, TPoL, TCF, the Mental Militia, FSP, FSW, and likely dozens of others I am forgetting. One of the great strengths of the freedom movement is that we all pull together when the chips are down, and my case certainly exemplifies that spirit.

Last, and most especially, I want to thank all those people who didn't know me before this all started who understood the important principles involved, and opened their hearts and helped out in every way imaginable. The financial support has kept me alive, and I even yet can't talk about just how effective your letters and commentary has been - keep it up, gang. You deserve the kudos for getting us to this first important milestone in this particular skirmish of the war for freedom. I personally promise you that the team that has been assembled to spearhead the "Free Hunter" effort is only beginning to produce results. We're not yet finished talking with Verizon, and there are a lot of other possibilities for action that we're exploring.
Jeffrey L "the Hunter" Jordan

Freedom, Immortality, and the Stars!
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http://www.LibertyRoundTable.org/
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Standing Armies & the War vs. Liberty

Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins." (spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789.)

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"Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear-kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor-with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it ..." -General Douglas MacArthur, 1957

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Nazi leader, Hermann Goering, said at the Nuremberg Trials before he was sentenced to death:

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

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James Madison: "As the greatest danger to liberty is from large standing armies, it is best to prevent them by an effectual provision for a good militia." (notes of debates in the 1787 Federal Convention)

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Joseph Story: "The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people." – Joseph Story. Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. 3 vols. Boston, 1833.

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