Give Me Liberty!

Give Me Liberty!

by Leon Howard

"Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop,
 free to work, free to trade where I choose,
 free to choose my own teachers, 
free to follow the religion of my fathers,
 free to talk, think and act for myself --
and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty."


·      Chief Joseph
(1840-1904) Chief of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce Indians
Source: Lincoln Hall Speech, Washington, DC (January 14, 1879)

A man feared by the U.S. Cavalry; feared because he wanted his people to live free and this nation could not allow that! He didn’t want to fight because he knew he couldn’t win; he wanted for his people to live free and was trying to escape to Canada.

Folks, this same government is trying to do to the rest of us what they did to the Native Americans and we have no place to escape to. Read this great leader’s words carefully; isn't this what every American wants?

Isn’t this the purpose of government to protect our inalienable rights? Then why won’t they honor their oath of office? Must we shed more patriots’ blood to re-establish the purpose of our Constitutional government? I pray to God, in the name of my Lord, Jesus, that we do not, but only He knows what the future holds for this nation of His creation and I yield to His purpose.

We must prepare for every possibility and pray for His guidance back to the freedom he has always desired for us. I encourage every member of the Tea Party to attend the Committee of Safety meetings; learn what you need to do to prepare for every eventuality. All of the training is free and it takes place with very knowledgeable folks … It’s also a lot of fun!

Plan on attending the Open Meeting, April 24^th, 6:30 pm at the Island View Worship Center because Karl and Barbara Anderson will be showing how to build the “Wonder Oven”; they will also be showing the Solar Oven and several other emergency cooking devices. These would be handy when you’re out camping or, in my case, out prospecting for gold.

Many scenarios are possible and some are inevitable because of this overreaching, over spending, and non-representing “government”, it is time for us to re-read Patrick Henry’s speech before the House of Burgess, March 23^rd, 1775; it’s all relevant today but a portion resonates with me and should resonate with every patriot: “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

How Did States Become So Liberal?

How Did States Become So Liberal?

By Leon Howard

Why does the state of Washington have 49 State Senators with only 39 counties? It has been a pet peeve of mine and I couldn’t believe the counties would give up their only voice in the State Legislature. Since LBJ’s “War on Poverty” began, it seems the coastal states have become liberal meccas and I recently found out what happened. “Reynolds vs. Sims” challenged Alabama’s Constitution on representation (1 senator/county) as a violation of the “equal protection” portion of the 14^th Amendment.

This happened in 1964. The liberal Supreme Court ruled that both state legislative houses must be based on population in a case titled, “Reynolds vs. Sims” from Alabama … A clear violation of the 10^th Amendment!  Prior to this “ruling”, most states allowed one senator per county, which was the only protection the smaller populated counties had to check the abuses of the more densely populated counties, like King and Pierce Counties; these 2 counties control the state legislature. In essence, 2 counties dictate to the other 37 counties what state revenues are spent on.

This is pure theft! Those 2 counties have stolen the voice of 37 counties and, like good communists, those 2 counties are not going to give up that control until we rip it from their hands!

Oregon and California have the same problem Washington does: One or two counties control the state agenda! There are 24 representatives and 11 senators “representing” the City of Los Angeles; that’s more than all the representatives and senators in the counties north of Sacramento!

The counties have lost their only representation in the state and that means the Supreme Court robbed all states of their republican form of government! A major ‘check & balance’ of power is missing thus virtually destroying the protection of individual liberty!

The federal government does not have the authority to dictate to the states how they set up their legislative bodies and prior to this “ruling”, states had theirs set up pretty much like the U.S. government: Representatives represented the people and the Senators represented the states; state legislatures were set up with the representatives representing the people and the senators representing the counties. With Earl Warren’s “reasoning”, there is no need for 2 legislative bodies. Washington State’s first Constitution, the constitution approved by the U.S. Congress in 1878, was set up differently, so to right this problem, we would have to pass an amendment to the Constitution and I would love to be a member of the committee that drafted that amendment. 

Here is the original language: Article VI, Section 2. "The number of the members of the House of Representatives shall never be less than eighteen nor more than sixty. The Senate shall consist of one-third the number of members as the House of Representatives." 

Obviously, they have exceeded the maximum number of representatives and senators; we have 98 representatives and 49 senators. The number of senators far exceeds the “ … one-third the number of members of the House of Representatives.” … Which wasn’t to exceed 20 and we have one-half the number of senators as representatives!

One problem is the states accepted the court’s opinion as a “ruling” which has been a major factor in the destruction and disregard of the 10^th Amendment! The Supreme Court is not authorized to make “rulings”; they are authorized to offer opinions … Congress can accept that opinion and let the matter drop or they can rewrite the law to comply with the opinion. The states have the same option and in this case they could have invoked the 10^th Amendment and told the court they were violating the 10^th Amendment and told the court “thanks but no thanks” … They didn’t so here we are.

What can we do? We’ll never get the 2 counties to agree to a state constitutional amendment that would take away their monopoly of power so what can we do?

The only recourse I can see would be a challenge to the Supreme Court ruling based on the 10^th Amendment. But I’m no expert; maybe this is a project for a legislative committee to work with a constitutional attorney to develop a strategy.

The original opinion was wrong because having 1 senator per county didn’t deny equal protection; it was part of the ‘checks & balances’ in a republic. It was just another nick in state sovereignty by a court appointed by FDR, one of liberty’s greatest enemies!

What Are Entitlements?

What Are “Entitlements”?

By Leon Howard

I think that’s a valid question; we have become an “entitlement society” in the last 50 years and we don’t even know how we got here. If you think about it, we do know how but are ashamed to admit why. We, the people, are the “why” but it’s tough to admit “We went to sleep at the wheel” and allowed the elitists, whose goal is the destruction of the United States, to speak emotional words, backed up by zero facts, to create the entitlement programs!

But they are calling Social Security, Veterans Retirements, and Veteran Disability Retirements “entitlements” and that I totally disagree with! They are not entitlements; entitlements are rewards given for doing nothing! Welfare is an entitlement! Medicaid is an entitlement! “Obamaphones” are an entitlement! Foreign aid is an entitlement and the most unfair of them all because the government is “buying” some hostile nation’s “friendship”.

Social Security, military retirements, and veteran disabilities are bought and paid for up-front; it is not a ‘something-for-nothing’ program like entitlements are. I cannot imagine a higher price being paid than serving in wars you did not declare, protecting your friends and family from harm, with the very likelihood, you will ‘pay the ultimate price’ of your life and, in many cases, losing your limbs or some other disabling injury. “Entitlement”? Absolutely not! Social Security, on the other hand, costs you and your employer money every paycheck; the government doesn’t pay one damned dime into the program but they have been extremely proficient at stealing the money from the Social Security “Trust Fund” over the years for their own little pet projects. They call it a “loan” but the workers putting the money in never approved a “loan” and we wouldn’t have, especially when we found out they wanted to “borrow” the funds at zero interest! I have heard figures of over $30 Trillion that the federal government owes the “Trust Fund” … That should have been our first indication it would be robbed by them … My father told me when I was 15 or 16, “Son, never trust the government.” “Trust Fund” to Congress spells “Piggy Bank” to an overspending Congress!

Medicare isn’t an entitlement either but I think it’s the biggest rip-off every perpetrated on seniors and healthcare providers! Seniors pay a Medicare Premium every month for coverage and then Congress steals as much as it can legislate from the healthcare providers. It isn’t a good deal for seniors healthcare because they dictate what can be covered and what cannot. They are exempted from federal laws but private insurance companies are not exempted. Example: Federal law states that all insurance companies shall pay for all treatments of any condition that is the result of breast cancer. Pretty cut-and-dried wouldn’t you say? My wife suffers from lymphedema, a condition resulting from a surgical mastectomy and radiation treatments for her breast cancer. As soon as she turned 65, her lymphatic massages were no longer covered; Medicare was exempted from complying with the law!

So, although Medicare isn’t an entitlement, it’s not something for the government to be proud of because of the rip-offs to seniors and healthcare providers. I had much better coverage before they forced me onto Medicare!

So when they cut Social Security benefits, Medicare benefits ($500 billion cut in Obamacare to help pay for the non-producers), and Veterans Pay, why didn’t we hear of similar cuts to Welfare and Medicaid? Why is it we never hear of cuts to the real entitlements? Why is it those who pay for benefits must suffer but the non-producers do not?

That’s what I find so amazing: Mr. Ryan touted this great budget deal with Patty, “I get the most pork for my state”, Murray and then it comes out that they didn’t know there was a cut in veterans pay … B--- S---! He wrote the damned thing and he didn’t know it was in there? “Smoke and Mirrors” – Again!

Not to worry though … All entitlements, Social Security, and veterans pay will be a thing of the past in a couple of years because the Congress is spending us into an economic collapse not seen since the Weimar Republic of Germany.

“Bladder Pods” – We Won!! But Did We?

“Bladder Pods” – We Won!! But Did We?

By Leon Howard

Diana and I were at the meeting when farmers ‘ponied-up’ the money for the University of Idaho to do the DNA testing of this weed, the “bladder pod” -  It was obvious the Fish & Wildlife would rather spend $600,000.00 to steal land rather than spend $5,000.00 on a DNA test that would give them facts to bring to the table.

We knew in our hearts this was another ploy to destroy the Columbia Basin agricultural base; part of the U.N. Agenda 21 scheme to return the majority of Washington state to it’s wilderness state of the dinosaurs and wooly mammoths. We knew their ‘junk science’ couldn’t stand up to true scientific scrutiny and we were right! The bladder pod found throughout the United States is all from the same family of weeds; there’s nothing “special” about and there is no need to ‘protect’ them here or elsewhere … So, we won! Didn’t we?

Who knows at this time but the Fish & Wildlife “Service” hasn’t conceded yet and we won’t have an answer for 6 months! Is that stupid or what? They try and steal land with junk “science” and when confronted with irrefutable scientific evidence, they have the audacity to say, “We will take this into consideration.” What the heck does that mean?

Having been in one fight or another with the federal government since 1964, it tells me they are looking for a way to deny the science so they can steal the land. Doc Hastings trusts them to do the right thing; perhaps Doc’s been there too long because he appears to be buying into their ‘clap-trap’ rhetoric.

But we do not have the luxury of ‘trusting’ the untrustworthy because this is our land and our food they want to take from us! We must be relentless on this because this is but the beginning of a fight to the death of us or the bureaucrats! There are more of us than there are of them.

We must continue to write letters to Doc Hastings; he must know we do not trust Fish & Wildlife “Service”, the E.P.A., and every other federal agency that seems to want to enslave us, take away our lands, and our God-given freedoms. We should continue to flood the Fish & Wildlife “Service” with letters challenging their junk science, shove the real science down their throats to force them to make the right decision. Yes, the “Comment Period” is over but who cares; let’s bury them in paperwork!

As free men and women, we must challenge every decision or proposal put forth by federal agencies and be prepared to ‘pony-up’ money to have real science make these determinations. Why don’t the citizens of Thurston County have DNA testing done on the Mazuma Pocket Gopher, comparing it with pocket gophers from around the nation and shove it down the throats of the county commissioners of Thurston County? There needs to be real science to condemn private lands; not just the opinion of some biologist that the gopher is unique because it has the largest genitalia of any gopher. Where did they come up with that? Who went out to measure the Mazuma gopher and which gophers did they compare it to and how many total gophers in the ‘study’? I think the biologist that foisted this “theory” needs to find work someplace else! This stupidity has ruined several lives and destroyed citizens property rights. The “Spotted Owl” is another travesty to Washington and Oregon economies with more ‘junk science’ leading the way.

Have you had enough yet? I certainly have!! Keep your powder dry!

Needless to say, the farmers and the Farm Bureau are fighting this but they need help. You can write letters and donate money:

Put bladder pod on the memo line of your check and mail to:

Franklin County Farm Bureau 

30 Aries Dr. 

Pasco, Washington 99301

Addresses to write the letters to:

Proposed Listing Address:

Public Comments Processing

Attn: FWS-R1-ES-2013-0017

Division of Policy and Directives Management

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

4401 N. Fairfax Dr., MS 2042-PDM

Arlington, Virginia 2203

Critical Habitat Rule Address:

Public Comments Processing

Attn: FWS-R1-ES-2013-0012

Division of Policy and Directives Management

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

4401 N. Fairfax Dr., MS 2042-PDM

Arlington, Virginia 22203