Overdue Student Loans Reach Record as U.S. Graduates Seek Jobs

Politicians and the Politically Connected Discuss Michigan Education Reform

Debt Limit: A Mere Warm-Up to a New Sequester Fight

Why do people feel poor even though the stock market is at a record high?

Bitcoin attracts major investors

McDonald's Threat: Not Obesity. Backbone Softening.

Why the Intelligencia Pay No Price for Being Wrong

Hyperinflation – 10 Worst Cases

And The Band Played On

It is indeed a singular thing that people wish to pass laws to nullify the disagreeable consequences that the law of responsibility entails. Will they never realize that they do not eliminate these consequences but merely pass them along to other people? The result is one injustice the more and one moral the less. — Frederic Bastiat

Red Wings have Chicago Black Hawks on the ropes

Obama Dissociative Disorder

The Differences Are a Matter of Arbitrary Law, Not Reality or Common Sense

We live in an age of denial.

Ron Paul: "The IRS's Job Is To Violate Our Liberties"

Washington Booms during Slowest Recovery

If this isn't a smoking gun, I don't know what is …

In Search of the Ice Age That Never Happened: The Global Cooling Hoax of the 70's

Politicizing Tragedy – The Moore Tornado

Lassoing Leviathan

Will anyone miss them when they're gone?

It's never too early to learn that the government is a greedy piglet that suckles on a taxpayer's teat until they have sore, chapped nipples. — Ron Swanson

Watch the man in the green shirt …

Good morning boys and girls. Can you say "Police State"?

In the name of "safety," your rights are gone!

Senators require fingerprinting at 30 airports

Gun control: Cartridge ID law to take effect

Why Is the State of Missouri Collecting Your Marriage License Upon Driver License Renewal?

When Congress Voted Down The Fourth Amendment

Surprise, Surprise Again

"interventionism abroad stems from the same kind of delusional thinking behind interventionism at home: both rely on the raw power of big government to reconstruct the world"

The Ruling Class as Full-Time Sadistic Torturers

Many of our contemporaries are firmly convinced that what is needed to render all human affairs perfectly satisfactory is brutal suppression of all bad people, i.e., of those with whom they disagree. — Ludwig von Mises

Financial Euphoria

Paul Tudor Jones on How Breast Feeding Interferes with Being a Good Trader

Statism vs. Capitalism

"It Has Come to Our Attention that the Imaginations of our Preschool Children are Becoming Dangerously Overactive …"

Obamacare is Politicized Medicine?

The Dependency Agenda

"The Three Languages of Politics"

Why Disinformation Works

Reason Poll: Congress Should Cut Spending Now, Forget Gun Control; 20% Have Libertarian Outlook

"What Happened to Grit in America?"

The State always moves slowly and grudgingly towards any purpose that accrues to society's advantage, but moves rapidly and with alacrity towards one that accrues to its own advantage; nor does it ever move towards social purposes on its own initiative, but only under heavy pressure, while its motion towards anti-social purposes is self-sprung. — Albert Jay Nock

theCL Report: Becoming Dangerously Overactive is a post from: Classic Liberal Blog

A self-described "constitutional purist," he started working for the Sentinel in 1972 and two years later began writing a column that would continue through 2001.

"He was more concerned with the individual, and he felt that the government should be more of a servant of the people," said Manning Pynn, a friend and a retired Sentinel editorial page editor.

Reese did not always follow the conservative line, and sometimes embraced a libertarian viewpoint instead. His readers did not always agree with him …

"He was very blunt, and he told it like it was," Healy said. "Nothing was too controversial for him. He really was one of a kind."

When family members asked Reese about his favorite column several weeks ago, he pointed to the "545" column he wrote for the Sentinel on Feb. 3, 1984. It still resonates with his fans today.

"He said it was the one column that people always remember him for," said daughter Alice Reese Gawronski of Winter Park.

And what a brilliant column that was it is!

All professional writers have a certain gift for words, but some are truly head-and-shoulders above the rest. Charley Reese was undeniably one of the best. Similar to the late great Joseph Sobran, Reese was one of those rare writers with the ability to say so incredibly much with so few words. But it wasn't just his gift for words, it was his willingness to go off the conservative reservation (an unimaginable virtue among modern conservative opinion makers today) that made him truly admirable.

His writing is as timeless, and his message just as urgent as the day each column was written. Take the time to enjoy the Charley Reese archives here (also here, here, and here). The following is his wonderful "545" column. Click over and read the whole thing. Commit it to memory. Never forget.

The 545 People Responsible For All Of U.S. Woes

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code. Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy. Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy. The Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 235 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.

I excluded all but the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.

No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislation's responsibility to determine how he votes.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 235 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility.

I can't think of a single domestic problem, from an unfair tax code to defense overruns, that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.

When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take it.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exist disembodied mystical force like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people and they alone are responsible. They and they alone have the power. they and they alone should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided they have the gumption to manage their own employees.

Day in and day out, we argue with each other over "Democrats" and "Republicans" as if that even amounted to a mere hill of beans. The truth, however, is that Charley Reese got it right! Both parties are to blame. Both parties are insufferably insane, corrupt … and the enemies of "We the People."

More:

• RIP Charley Reese
• Charley Reese, RIP
• Charley Reese, RIP
• Charley Reese, RIP

 
Charley Reese Quotes:

Government is inherently incompetent, and no matter what task it is assigned, it will do it in the most expensive and inefficient way possible.

[N]o American should retreat an inch on the right of jurors to acquit if they perceive the law or its administration to be unjust.

Congress seems to want to cure every ill known to man except unconstitutional government and high taxes.

Powers once assumed are never relinquished, just as bureaucracies, once created, never die.

The politicians in this world … have at their command weapons of mass destruction far more complex than their own thinking processes.

We … are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant.

Charley Reese, RIP is a post from: Classic Liberal Blog

Meanwhile … Read it and weep

FDR: Sowing the Seeds of Chaos

Welcome To The USSA

Why My 'Crash Alert' Flag Is Flying High

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Extraordinary measures become standard as US hits debt limit again

Washington Signals Dollar Deep Concerns

Beware the IRS

For those who unfairly lump Social Security in with Bernie Madoff, in all fairness, you should point out the difference. No one was ever legally required to pay money to Madoff. — Addison Wiggin

Reject These Voices....

IRS: Could You Tell Us About Your Prayers?

How is this not huge?

"Forward" to Tyranny: Obama promotes IRS Tea Party inquisitor to Obamacare enforcer

New York Times Self-Parody Alert

E-Verify = E-Total State

Tyranny is the type of government our founders rejected

Politics is Scandalous

This new "freedom" is getting to be worse than the old "tyranny"

They Thought They Were Free

Obama desperately needs a distraction – sounds like a good time to meet with Turkey over the Syrian game plan

It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the 'right' to education, the 'right' to health care, the 'right' to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle. — Alexis de Tocqueville

America Moves One Step Closer To Being Militarized

Lawful Military Support To Civil Authorities In Times of Crisis

Posse Comitatus, R.I.P.

Our Civil Liberties, RIP

The Terror Cartel Strikes in Idaho

Simple Justice …

Desensitization Training: Police Practice Fighting "Angry Parents"

Never-Ending War

Evidence for Confiscation: 5 examples that show the threat is real

Lions And Tigers And Terrorists, Oh My!

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre …. — H.L. Mencken

The outright harassment, intimidation and black bagging of political opponents in the US

Don't Ever Talk to the Police

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Self-Mutilation In Pursuit Of Certainty

Scandal: And They Shall Eat Their Own ...

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YOU ARE CRAZY: New Psychiatric Guidelines Target Hoarding, Child Temper Tantrums, and a Host of Other "Illnesses"

Is Democracy Up Against The Ropes?

A Guide to Practical Compassion

Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance, this great land of ordered liberty, for if we stumble and fall, freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin. — Henry Cabot Lodge

by *JaimeIbarra

theCL Report: Worse than the Old “Tyranny” is a post from: Classic Liberal Blog

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No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny in government. — Thomas Jefferson

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Judge Napolitano: "They violated the most core protected rights under the constitution …"

President "Modified Limited Hangout" Obama

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Obama's IRS: Intimidating Republican Supporters

Spying on the Press

"Admittedly racist" Tea Party deserved IRS scrutiny

Political Bias at the IRS Likely Deep-Seated

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The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness … This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. — Plato

BREAKING: Department of Homeland Security Has Seized Funds Associated with Dwolla Account of Bitcoin Dealer Mt. Gox

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Why Are Police Simulating Armed "Angry Parents" Laying Siege to Schools?

No, You May NOT Have A Glass of Wine

Heroes and Their Tazers

But it's all legal! Since 911!

Lee Greenwood Could Not Be Reached For Comment

Pentagon Unilaterally Grants Itself Authority Over 'Civil Disturbances'

The Brewing Generational Conflict

Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. — George Orwell

The Illusion of Difference

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Record Number: 10.9 Million Americans Collecting Disability

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Federal Government Mandates Unconstitutional Speech Codes

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Obamacare: Taxpayers Must Report Personal Health ID Info to IRS

The common good of a collective -- a race, a class, a state -- was the claim and justification of every tyranny ever established over men. Every major horror of history was committed in the name of an altruistic motive. Has any act of selfishness ever equaled the carnage perpetrated by disciples of altruism? Does the fault lie in men's hypocrisy or in the nature of the principle? The most dreadful butchers were the most sincere. The believed in the perfect society reached through the guillotine and the firing squad. Nobody questioned their right to murder since they were murdering for an altruistic purpose. It was accepted that man must be sacrificed for other men. Actors change, but the course of the tragedy remains the same. A humanitarian who starts with the declarations of love for mankind and ends with a sea of blood. It goes on and will go on so long as men believe that an action is good if it is unselfish. That permits the altruist to act and forces his victims to bear it. The leaders of collectivist movements ask nothing of themselves. But observe the results. — Ayn Rand

Heroes and Their Tazers: theCL Report is a post from: Classic Liberal Blog

Civil asset forfeiture is a lucrative state business … and business is good.

Man Loses $160,000 In New 'Policing For Profit' Case

NewsChannel 5 has uncovered a brand new "policing for profit" case -- a case that resulted in a New York man losing a $160,000 on a Tennessee interstate.

Even more startling, critics said, the case exposes a major loophole around a new law that's supposed to crack down on such abuses.

Police video, obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, shows how an Indian-American businessman from New York lost the cash during a December 2011 traffic stop along I-40 in Dickson County.

It's money that authorities would eventually be forced to return -- more than a year later.

"It does show that the government did not have a very strong case," said Darpana Sheth, an attorney with the conservative-leaning Institute for Justice.

Her organization has called such practices "highway robbery."

The cash was seized by an interdiction officer from the 23rd Judicial District Drug Task Force. The agency gets its funding by seizing cash -- usually from out-of-state drivers, often minorities -- when officers have suspicions that it might be drug money.

But in this case, instead of using state seizure laws, the agent from the 23rd took the cash to the feds, tying up the businessman's money in the federal courts.

After more than a year and who knows how much money wasted on attorney fees, this New York businessman eventually got his money back.

But the majority do not.

The Institute for Justice report, Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture, details the abuses of the asset forfeiture racket — "one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today."

In most states and under federal law, law enforcement can keep some or all of the proceeds from civil forfeitures. This incentive has led to concern that civil forfeiture encourages policing for profit, as agencies pursue forfeitures to boost their budgets at the expense of other policing priorities. These concerns are exacerbated by legal procedures that make civil forfeiture relatively easy for the government and hard for property owners to fight … in nearly all states and at the federal level, the legal standard of proof the government must meet for civil forfeiture is lower than the strict standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” required for criminal convictions ….

[I]n most places, owners bear the burden of establishing their innocence. In other words, with civil forfeiture, property owners are effectively guilty until proven innocent ….

[F]ederal civil forfeiture laws encourage abuse by providing a loophole to law enforcement in states with good laws for property owners: "equitable sharing." With equitable sharing, state law enforcement can turn over seized assets to the federal government, or they may seize them jointly with federal officers. The property is then subject to federal civil forfeiture law — not state law. Federal law provides as much as 80 percent of the proceeds to state law enforcement and stacks the deck against property owners. Thus, the equitable sharing loophole provides a way for state and local law enforcement to profit from forfeitures that they may not be able to under state law.

It's no secret that local, state, and federal governments are upside down and in desperate need of cash. So it's hardly a surprise that the asset forfeiture trend is on the rise. Hey, I mean, when our unfettered governments rake in billions of dollars off these scams, what else could anyone possibly expect?

Asset forfeitures can certainly be lucrative for cash-strapped agencies and states. In the fiscal year ending September 2012, the federal government seized $4.2 billion in assets, a dramatic increase from the $1.7 billion seized the year before. Between 2004 and 2008, police in Jim Wells County, Texas seized over $1.5 million. The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. collected $358,000 from civil forfeiture in fiscal year 2011, and $529,000 from federal equitable sharing. The State Attorney's Office in Madison County, Illinois, made $500,000 from asset forfeiture over the course of eight years.

Often, these governmental property grabs take the form of highway robbery (literally), where police officers extract money, jewelry, and other property from unsuspecting motorists during routine traffic stops. As Mother Jones quips, "forfeiture corridors are the new speed traps." Indeed, states such as Texas, Tennessee, and Indiana are among the worst offenders.

Yeah, it really is all about the money.

As the economy continues to collapse and tax revenues dry up, the parasitic class will seek more and more ways to fleece productive taxpayersvictims of their wealth. And law enforcement agencies are nothing but their enforcement arm … oh, and btw, they're "looking for a fight."

Billions of dollars provide a mighty incentive for robbing people blind, and tens of thousands of 3-column pages of legalese makes their dastardly task simple. They'll take your property and destroy your life whether you're guilty or not. They don't care.

… and the burden of proof is solely on you.

Everyone knows that the State claims and exercises [a] monopoly of crime … and that it makes this monopoly as strict as it can. It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale. It punishes private theft, but itself lays unscrupulous hands on anything it wants, whether the property of citizen or of alien … Of all the crimes that are committed for gain or revenge, there is not one that we have not seen it commit — murder, mayhem, arson, robbery, fraud, criminal collusion and connivance. — Albert Jay Nock

Nevermind the Boo-slims hiding under your bed … The government itself — at every single level — is by far the greatest threat Americans face today.

H/T - Police Steal $160,000 From Man During Traffic Stop

More Civil Asset Forfeiture:

• The Cash Machine
• When the looter is the government
• Federal & Local Law Enforcement Agencies Try to Take Family Motel from Innocent Owners
• Luke Davis: State Forfeiture Thug
• Armed Robbery
• Michigan's' Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws = Policing For Profit
• Would you like to forfeit your house?
• Forfeiting Our Property Rights: Is Your Property Safe from Seizure?
• Take the Money and Run
• Easy Money: Civil Asset Forfeiture Abuse by Police

Highway Robbery is a post from: Classic Liberal Blog

The College Bubble Is Finally Bursting

Every President His Bubble – And Its Aftermath

The Fed Knows It's Created Another Bubble and Is Managing Down Expectations

Is Ben Bernanke A Beached Whale?

Sorry, We The People Are No Machines

What does it mean to be retired in the United States?

The Untouchables of the 21st Century

A Universal Basic Income???

The New Deal's True Legacy: Economic Fascism

What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race. — Thomas Sowell

Civil War in the GOP?

Remember when Hillary Clinton was fired from the Watergate Committee staff?

Once again the lamestream media buries the Benghazi story

Blah, Blah, Blah Benghazi

Why do the young vote for dependency — when the essence of youth is a quest for independence?

Sociopaths in Washington

The Startling Accuracy of Referring to Politicians as 'Psychopaths'

The Government's Us? Not Last Time I Checked

The Three Party System: Left, Right, and Reality

Rasmussen Poll: Nullification Goes Mainstream

To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying. — Richard Henry Lee

Confiscate, Confiscate, Confiscate

DOJ Reports: FISA Court Approved Every Federal Surveillance Request

Feds Ban Blueprints for All-Plastic 3D Pistol

Why Are We Disarmed When No Laws Have Been Broken?

Guess What's Hidden In The Immigration Bill? A National Biometric Database For Citizens

NYPD: 'Guilty Until Proven Innocent' Is Just The Price We Pay For A 'Free Society'

Gun Use by Citizens Infographic

Whitehouse Propagandists Claim 90% of Americans want Expanded Background Checks. Really?

Former Bush Administration Attorney Threatens Bloggers As He Faces Federal Sentencing

The Unreal Liberal Argument for Conscription

The Draft Is And Always Will Be Slavery

If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them. — Paul Wellstone

Coming soon to a web browser near you: Internet for the intellectually disabled

The K-12 Implosion

Lesbians begin adopted boy's sex change

The High Cost of Central Planning

Amazon Launches 'Coins' Virtual Currency

Ever been chased down by killer whales?

Christian Political Life

Pay no attention to man behind the curtain

Supreme Court Backs Patents on 'Self-Replicating' Technology

Health evaders and the B Ark

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. — Rudyard Kipling

Left, Right, and Reality: theCL Report is a post from: Classic Liberal Blog