All

Proposals by lawmakers following the shooting of a Congresswoman in Tucson reveal a broad legislative intent to clamp down on personal liberties and ratchet up on state controls. Foremost in these efforts are self-styled “progressives,” who, in true Orwellian style, have advocated stepping up the freedom regression on several fronts.

As we noted in this column on Monday, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and her ilk are planning to introduce new citizen disarmament edicts, and Rep. Robert Brady wants to ban sending representative’s symbols they might perceive as threatening. (Yo, Bob: Wet yourself.)

Now we learn Rep. Louise Slaughter wants the FCC to dictate acceptable political speech on radio and television (and if you read her statements carefully, she’s making the case that what opposition candidates can say should be restricted). Never mind that to even give credence to her “reasoning” means we must also accept the unhinged among us are primed to go off, like an avalanche, at the slightest tremor, and thus control all our actions and expressions as if walking on eggshells so as not to trigger their rage.

“The NRA should just change its name to the assassin’s lobby, because that’s what they are” TV personality Bill Maher told Tonight Show host Jay Leno on Tuesday when asked about his take on the Tucson shootings.

“I’m so tired of hearing about the Second Amendment and the Constitution,” he continued.

If you love guns, just admit it — like it’s a vice. It’s like alcohol or drugs or sex addiction or gambling… It’s not good for you or anyone else, but you like it.

Nice. Good, responsible men and women who as a matter of course exhibit self control are equated with degenerates who exercise none. Typical. The citizen disarmament crowd is employing “tone down the rhetoric” like it’s some virtue they alone have championed while their lying spokesmen are out there on national television ginning up hate-fueled divisiveness.

Generally, when one is in the midst of national tragedy, unspoken but expected rules of social conduct tend to take effect. These rules require us to engage in a chorus of collective theater in which every person must act out their best teary-eyed monologue. We suddenly feel obliged to showcase for the world how much more empathetic we are to the plight of the victim or victims than others, or, we simply silence our dissent so that we might avoid appearing “insensitive” to the fads of cultural grieving. That is to say, if you dare to question the honesty behind the sobs, the outrage, or the reactionary zealotry of the ideologues hell bent on exploiting the latest calamity to their own benefit, then you are usually branded as monstrous as the villain or villains who carried out the terrible event in the first place.

In what may one day be heralded as the formal proposal that proverbially started it all, the Commonwealth of Virginia introduced House Resolution No. 557 to establish a joint subcommittee to “to study whether the Commonwealth should adopt a currency to serve as an alternative to the currency distributed by the Federal Reserve System in the event of a major breakdown of the Federal Reserve System.”

In other words, Virginia will study the fallback plan of a “timely adoption of an alternative sound currency that the Commonwealth’s government and citizens may employ without delay in the event of the destruction of the Federal Reserve System’s currency” and avoid or “at least mitigate many of the economic, social, and political shocks to be expected to arise from hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System.”

My original testimonial still stands no new information that i can think to add, except….I just upgraded to a life membership. I believe it is paramount that all who can afford the lifetime membership become one asap. It is not to say see what I can do, but to say see I care about my country enough to give up a couple of items a month to pay for the membership.

If the Commander and Chief gets his way we will not have an Oath Keepers or any other organization to stand up for those of us who are the everyday common man and woman. Our freedoms will go away like so much dust in the wind. So please if you can become a lifetime member. I remember my oath in 64 as a Marine recruit. I also remember the last time I took the oath for the St. Clair Cty Sheriff’s Dept. Same oath. It is as pertinent today as it was in 1964 and as it will in 2064.

Message from “John Galt”: “I am quite pleased to announce that Stewart Rhodes will be joining me on the program Tuesday night to discuss the threat of the authoritarian wave sweeping over America and the Oath Keepers organization which is taking a stand for the Constitution and values our nation was founded upon. Do not miss one moment of this exciting interview and calls will be welcome during the second half hour of the show.”

For anyone who wishes to listen to the program there are 3 outlets to access the show.

It should come as no surprise that the usual political vultures have descended on the Tucson shooting and, before the blood even dried on the concrete, immediately sought to use that horrible mass murder by a mentally ill killer as a political weapon to infringe on our right to bear arms, to chill our speech, and to suppress the groundswell of constitutionalism that is sweeping the nation. But the best rebuke I have seen yet of their bloodthirsty political opportunism comes from the father of the nine year old who was among the slain.

Oath Keepers Founder, Stewart Rhodes will be speaking in Arizona Jan 28-29. On Friday, January 28 the Oath Keepers Arizona Chapter will also be hosting a Meet and Greet with Stewart.

Stewart and Sheriff Mack will also be speaking that the Nullify Now event being presented by our friends with the Tenth Amendment Center on Saturday, January 29.

The terrible violence in Arizona last weekend prompted much national discussion on many issues. All Americans are united in their sympathies for the victims and their families. All wonder what could motivate such a horrible act. However, some have attempted to use this tragedy to discredit philosophical adversaries or score political points. This sort of opportunism is simply despicable.

We are fortunate to live in a society where violence is universally denounced. Not one public official or commentator has attempted to justify this reprehensible act, yet the newspapers, internet, and airwaves are full of people trying to claim it was somehow motivated by someone else’s political rhetoric. Most disturbing are the calls to use government power to censor certain forms of speech, and even outlaw certain types of criticism of public officials. This was the completely apolitical act of a violent and disturbed man. How sad that the attempted murder of the Congresswoman who had just read the First Amendment on the House floor would be used in efforts to chill free speech! Perhaps some would feel safer if the Alien and Sedition Acts were reinstated.

On January 8, 2011, Federal District Judge John Roll was gunned down by a maniacal coward lunatic. Since this unspeakable and unimaginable tragedy much has been said about who caused this tragedy or who may have prompted its occurrence. Some of this rhetoric bordered on the absurd. I would much rather talk about the good people who had their lives snuffed out before their time and to pay tribute to who they were and what they stood for. Certainly, a beautiful little nine year old angel, named Christina Green, deserves to have her life displayed as an example to others to learn from and enjoy. So, I will do that regarding a man who changed my life and helped alter American history; Judge John M. Roll. He was an honest man and a principled judge. He stood for what he believed was right despite the possible consequences. I met Judge Roll back in 1994, in fact, it was in his courtroom. He was the judge who first heard my lawsuit against the Clinton Administration. Judge Roll had the courage to take a strong stand against the very entity that controlled his salary and career. He actually had the audacity to tell Congress and President Clinton that they exceeded their authority when they made the Brady bill a law.

I find myself asking what I can do; what I am willing to do, and how far I’m willing to go to do it. Only time will tell, but I know that I must do something to further this movement and get the word out to other vets in my area.

Oath Keepers is saddened by the passing of our beloved corporate Secretary, Michelle Ketrow. As a lifetime member in Oath Keepers, Michelle remained loyal to our mission until cancer took her from us on Tuesday morning, January 04, 2011.

Michelle died peacefully in her sleep, having fought bravely against the cancer for months. We are told by her mother that she had a peaceful and restful look on her face. She had been released from a hospital to a hospice, and finally to her home, where family and friends were with her constantly.

But Michelle’s greatest strength, her courage and her resolution, was bolstered by a U.S. Marine Corps Vietnam veteran, our corporate Attorney and Board member, the honorable David Rivers, who loved Michelle in a special way. David took close care of Michelle as she fought the illness, and all of the Board of Directors was aware of Michelle’s and David’s love for each other.

I personally got to meet Michelle, along with David, at the July, 2010, Oath Keepers Board conference in Bozeman, Montana, and my memories of Michelle shall always feature their happy faces as they toured the mountains and valleys of southwest Montana with the rest of the Board. They had an enviable happiness, which was contagious and uplifting for all who knew them.

Oath Keepers is a tightly-knit family, and those of us who live in Las Vegas were busy helping make Michelle comfortable. An outstanding role in that care-giving was delivered by Dave Freeman, who took steps to make sure everything was taken care of for Michelle day by day. Dave visited her often, and it was he who would present to Michelle the various honors Oath Keepers offered to her – gifts from Oath Keepers and from the organization as a whole.

Michelle Ketrow was a true Patriot who honored the Oath and gave her all for our organization’s mission. We at the Board are broken-hearted in losing Michelle, and we are standing with David Rivers to console him in this moment of supreme loss.

America is under assault. Most of us have watched this assault for years, and thought that elections were enough to beat back the rising tide of statist authoritarianism. Then Hurricane Katrina happened in 2005. We were wrong!

Sheriff Richard Mack is a former Sheriff from Graham County, AZ. and a long time crusader for freedom and individual rights. He is the author of several books, The Victory for State Sovereignty; Country Sheriff, America’s last hope, The Naked Spy and From my Cold Dead Fingers.

That battle showed that men fighting for their freedom were more than a match for mercenaries fighting only for money – and making it a surprise attack at dawn the day after Christmas rather than a formal set-piece battle certainly helped too.

But chief among the reasons I enjoy Christmas so much is that it is a time of relative peace, when people the world over stop to remember the birth of “the Prince of Peace” and what He actually stood for – Peace on earth, and goodwill towards men.

I put on my uniform with my state patch on, the pine tree emblazoned by the sun, it means something to me. Its not just a piece of cloth, it has meaning as long as I remember the oath I took on September 30th, 2009.