An Excellent 61% Case Pending

Chris Strunk was the first person to charge Obama with ineligibility to hold the office of President–only three days following the Inauguration.

Below is an excerpt from his Interpleader Case (his case will now piggy-back Dr. Orly Taitz’s case who is suing for injury).  Chris, on the other hand, intends to prove the use of overseas funds to win the election. 

What is below reads better than ANY Tom Clancy novel.  Too bad it is ALL TRUE!!  For more info or to help the cause, go to www.patriotfreedom.org and you will find ways to help.

PARTIES

1. That Plaintiff in DCD 10-cv-00151 is Orly Taitz in esse, hereinafter “Taitz.”, with place for service located at 29839 Santa Margarita Parkway, STE 100 Rancho Santa Margarita CA 92688 Tel: (949) 683-5411; Fax (949) 766-7603, E-Mail: dr taitz@yahoo.com        
2. The Plaintiff is a resident of California and president of the Defend Our Freedoms foundation.  She is a Doctor of Jurisprudence and a Doctor of Dental Surgery. Through her foundation, she has popularized Constitution and fought violations of Constitution and civil liberties of U.S. citizens. As part of her work, she has filed numerous legal actions, representing over 200 US citizens: State Representatives of different states, candidates on the ballot and high ranked members of US military. Her clients are seeking release of original vital records of Barack Hussein Obama, to see if he is eligible for US presidency. As of now in spite of over 100 legal actions filed all over the Nation by some 13 licensed attorneys and numerous pro se plaintiffs and in spite of 12 citizen grand jury presentments and indictments, Obama refused to provide any vital records that would be acceptable in any court of law.
3. Taitz has an exploratory effort to run for the Office of the Secretary of State of California in the 2010 General Election.
4. Defendant – Barack Hussein Obama in esse (a.k.a. Barry Soetoro), hereinafter “Obama”, place for service is in care of The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, District of Columbia  20500; 
5. 5.         That Obama has campaign committees: Obama for America, Obama Victory Fund duly registered in Washington D.C. with the DOT and FEC by the 42 USC 1971 authority over each;
6. Notwithstanding facts requiring a report on the law to the contrary that renders Obama a Usurper, Obama nevertheless remains the Acting President of the United States and Commander in Chief, and Chief Law Enforcement Officer who has refused to present in any court of law or to the public any vital records that would show his eligibility as for POTUS based on Article 2, section 1 of the Constitution, as one born in the United States to two citizen parents without allegiance to any other sovereignties. From birth and until now Mr. Obama had citizenship and allegiance to several other nations: Great Britain, Kenya, Indonesia and as a Sunni Muslim to Saudi Arabia where he bows toward Mecca, is committing a misprision of felony and Treason.
7. Mr. Obama is not a USA “natural born” citizen eligible to serve as the United States President, pursuant to the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 5. 
8.  Although Mr. Obama claims to have been born in two (2) separate hospitals in Hawaii, he was actually born in Mombasa, Kenya to his mother a U.S.A. Citizen and his father a Kenyan National British Citizen within the United Kingdom with law and Monarchy that governs.
9. That Mr. Obama and as Soetoro is a trained radical Sunni Muslim by birth right, training and practice that is admitted in Defendants speech to the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo in 2009 – practices Shariah law and is devoted and aligned to King Saud of Saudi Arabia.
10. That Mr. Obama is also a Prince Hall 32^nd Degree Freemason who starting in 1979 at Columbia University was mentored by SMOM member Zbigniew Kaimierz Brzezinski, a Polish national from a Polish aristocratic family, who became a naturalized U.S. Citizen and who during the Carter Administration served as the National Security advisor from 1977 to 1981.
11. That Mr. Obama Jr.’s natural father Mr. Obama Senior, was a British Citizen governed under the laws of the United Kingdom married to Mr. Obama Jr.’s mother Stanley Ann Dunham at the time of Mr. Obama Jr.’s birth on August 4, 1961.
12. Defendant Obama admits that his father at the time of his birth was a citizen of the United Kingdom and that the British Nationality Act of 1948 governs dual citizenship at birth.
13. That Mr. Obama acknowledges by endorsing Senate Resolution 511 that you need two (2) U.S.A. Citizen parents at birth to be qualified to be a natural born citizen.
14. That Rep. John Bingham, author of the 14th Amendment, Congressional Globe, 39th, 1st Sess., pg 1291 (March 9, 1866) stated:  “… every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural-born citizen.”
15. Instead, Mr. Barry Soetoro and or his agent(s) placed an image of a Hawaiian Certification of Live Birth (COLB), which is issued for all birth’s registered in the State of Hawaii; the COLB, does not prove “natural born” citizenship or birth in Hawaii.
16.  A COLB is sufficient proof of citizenship; however, it does not prove “natural born” citizenship, a COLB is issued to those who are simply “naturalized”.  
17. Ex-Relator, Christopher-Earl: Strunk in esse (hereinafter “Interpleader”, “Ex-Relator”), is an individual with place for service at 593 Vanderbilt Avenue PMB #281 Brooklyn, NY 11238, Email: chris@strunk.ws, SKYPE: cestrunk and Telephone (845) 901-6767.
18. That Strunk is a natural-born citizen of New York with both Parents being citizens there in the city of New York at the time of Interpleader’s birth, and that both Parents were married  natural-born citizens of the United States of America (USA).
19. As such unlike the Usurper, Interpleader is eligible to become the President of the United States of America (POTUS) unlike Defendant meets the three requirements of eligibility:  be at least 35 years of age, 14 years resident of the USA and be a natural born citizen at birth.
20. That Strunk makes a special-appearance in this action without relinquishing sovereignty and or any inalienable individual right and has served notice upon the Department of Justice.
21. In explanation, Strunk’s Special-Appearance is as a Living-Soul Son-of-the Most-High-God-Yahweh in existence nunc pro tunc the moment of Creation in Joint-Heir-with-His-Son Made Debt-Free with the Yahshua Payment (consideration) of His Blood, in which Strunk Stands in the Kingdom of the Most-High-God Yahweh, and that is under reserve, without dishonor, without prejudice, without recourse in good faith, no dolus; and  that  this court  and or any temporal entity or person is unable to offer a higher consideration.
22. That Strunk has inalienable individual rights as described by the Declaration of Independence of 1776 that pre-existed the creation of the United States’ Constitution.
23. That Strunk is the creator of the United States’ Constitution nunc pro tunc at the moment of his Creation as an inheritance upon birth as a natural born-citizen.
24. That Strunk’s sovereign authority to protect his inalienable individual rights creates the Federal government and to define express limited rights for the government to operate by.
25. That there are four political branches of government: the three who govern with the consent of the people granted to The Congress, The Executive, The Judiciary and the fourth most important branch The People who are resident in a respective State of the several States. 
26. There is an overriding Constitutional question of first impression historically ignored since June 1912 that even with enactment of the interim measure of 13 USC §141 to re-balance  the electoral college for the people of each State of the several States in 1929 still is contrary to the required  House decennial enlargement as to the actual population in Article I section 2 that each House member represent only with the consent of the people among the 30,000 persons in each member district, that now is somewhere around say one House member per say 690,0000 persons, and as such remains a festering cancer upon the national government that according to a recent Rasmussen survey 61% of the people say the government acts ultra vires without consent.
27. The first political branch, The Congress, has not followed the requirement of the U.S. Constitution in so far as enlargement since 1912, that representative government has fatally weakened the guarantee of a republican form of government, especially as it applies to the second political branch, The Executive, dependent upon the Electoral College election process in each state of the several states to appoint POTUS; and
28. Further, that since 1928 the Office of POTUS without the equal protection provision of decennial enlargement of the first Branch has evolved into a cult of tyranny that will only worsen without a representative sized electoral college commensurate with the increase of the people to select the chief magistrate, (i.e. in New York in 1960 with 12.5 million residents had 45 electoral college votes now in 2010 with say 19.5 million residents based upon the 2000 Census now only has 31 electoral college votes schedule to loose two more with the 2010 Census); and
29. Further, one hundred years later without an enlargement of the electoral college more than ever before the chief law enforcement officer  must have no appearance of impropriety or even the slightest question of allegiances as with the Usurper Obama, who is the epitome of the fears of the framers as to undue foreign influence in Article II Section 1 in use of the express  eligibility mandate of any candidate shall be a natural-born citizen without dual allegiance; and
30. Further, without enlargement The Congress has become a tyrannical dictatorship disconnected from the people who are restrained by an every increasing difficulty in running for office or participating with a reasonable expectation of success, and as evidenced now with the Usurper who operates under a continuous state of arbitrary and capricious declared emergencies; that will only chronically worsen every ten years without the required U.S. House size reasonably reflecting the consent of the people, in that the House increasingly operates for a cabal of special interest contributors whose surreptitious campaign funding violations of laws and side deals operate without the consent of the people, and as such the House increasingly lacks the ability to as a regular expectation of their duties to impeach high crimes and misdemeanors in the executive, and especially members of the judiciary who rather than report on the law make the law with impunity so much so that the people now fear the judiciary for being arbitrary and capricious in a chronic corruption as seen with Alcee Hastings who even after soliciting bribes from the bench left by an impeachment process only then to  become a U.S. House member from South Miami in Florida.
31. That unlike Plaintiff, Strunk has a 42 USC §1983 cause of action in Strunk v. Paterson et al. NYS Supreme Court in Kings County Index no.: 08-29642 before the Honorable New York Supreme Court Justice David I. Schmidt complaining of a state action civil rights injury suffered in the 2008 General Election process in New York’s appointment of its Electoral College that relies on action and discovery herein to proceed.
32. That Strunk’s individual authority creates the corporate office of the President of the United States of America, POTUS, to which Defendant Barack Hussein Obama was questionably elected without presenting eligibility proof of his qualifications other than his opinion he was somehow eligible.
33. This application is made because of the failure of our representative government to uphold the U.S. Constitutional form of governance. The three branches of government are co-opted by a cabal of interlocking directorships of entities and especially the Sovereign Military Order of Malta ^([1]) whose members are also citizens of that sovereign state, thereby have at least dual allegiance and hold questionable titles that are in conflict with Title 18 Chapter 45 for USA Foreign Relations and that with dual allegiance are operating outside and above the law.
34. That SMOM member Zbigniew Kaimierz Brzezinski has played a crucial role for the Vatican State and SMOM to create global regionalism that subsumes national sovereignty and as the Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski expressed his view of regionalism at Mikhail Gorbachev’s October 1995 State of the World Forum, that quote:

 “We cannot leap into world government in one quick step…The precondition for eventual globalization — genuine globalization — is progressive regionalization.”

1. That SMOM member Zbigniew Brzezinski’s sons, Mark was a member of the advisors in the Defendant Obama’s Campaign and Ian was an advisor on the McCain Campaign and both now are serving in government.  
2. That SMOM member Zbigniew Brzezinski works with SMOM Member King Juan Carlos to further global regionalism with the European Union, North American Union, and now the Mediterranean Union (MU) dependent upon the elimination of the Sovereign State of Israel.
3. That SMOM Member Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor Maria de Borbón y Borbón-DosSicilias has titles that include in official use: King of Jerusalem, as successor to the royal family of Naples, King of Spain, of Castile, of León, of Aragon, of the Two Sicilies (Naples and Sicily), of Jerusalem, of Navarre, of Granada, of Toledo, of Valencia, of Galicia, of Majorca, of Seville, of Sardinia, of Cordoba, of Corsica, of Murcia, of Menorca, of Jaen, of the Algarves, of Algeciras, of Gibraltar, of the Canary Islands, of the Spanish East and West Indies and of the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean Sea; Archduke of Austria; Duke of Burgundy, of Brabant, of Milan, and of Neopatra (New Patras); Count of Habsburg, of Flanders, of Tyrol, of Roussillon and of Barcelona; Lord of Biscay and of Molina; and as such is the principal organizer of the downfall of Israel per se as a sovereign state with control over Jerusalem.
4. That for Juan Carlos, a deal was cut with the Arabs that he gets his cut of Jerusalem. However, he has bigger plans than the Arabs understand. Last November he flew to Malta to open the offices of the Mediterranean Union. Just prior to his American voyage, the MU held a conference entitled, On the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinians. Israel did not attend because…King Juan Carlos going to Malta in November http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=31629  with the “5+5 Forum” discusses re-launching the Roman Empire as the Med Union and that this February assembled Senior officials from 10 western Mediterranean countries met here Tuesday to discuss the relaunch of the Mediterranean Union, which has been stalled over the recent war in Gaza. The one-day meeting in the southern city of Cordoba brought together foreign ministers or representatives from Spain France, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia. ..The five Catholic nations and the five African Arab nations are united to re-form the early Roman Empire, the same entity that crushed ancient Israel.
5. On February 17, 2010, King Juan Carlos of Spain met President Obama in Washington. Told Obama that Israel will not be able to survive the next war. Obama celebrated by sending William Burns of the CFR to Damascus to announce the impending new American ambassador to Syria. Moreover, no one paid any attention to the coordination of the King’s visit and this diplomatic about face. And is no secret that both Carlos and Obama are out to get Israel and the cabal against USA sovereign policy and national security interest is led by the Jesuit-trained King of Spain, Juan Carlos, and as we know, Juan Carlos believes he is a descendent of Jesus himself and the title he is proudest of is Custodian of the Holy Sites Of Jerusalem. He wants the Jews out of Jerusalem and the Vatican back in, as Juan Carlos believes he is the King of Jerusalem. With a few twists, he will get his throne back. The setup for the endgame began after Israel’s disastrous war with Hezbollah in the summer of  2006. The leaders of the world met in Rome and appointed a UN army, 80% from Catholic Europe, to separate Israel from Hezbollah. Just before meeting Obama, Juan Carlos dropped in on the UN’s newest Security Council member, Lebanon, for dinner and a meeting with the new Spanish commander of the UN separation troops. We were not there but we will safely assume the discussion had nothing to do with stopping the upcoming war, and lots to do with ignoring Hezbollah launching tens of thousands of rockets at Israel.
6. That SMOM member Juan Carlos was also the principal instigator of the North American Union and principal investor in the Texas Trans-corridor Highway system using the Law firm of SMOM member Rudolf Giuliani that fits into the Regional Planning Association,  http://www.America2050.org plans of its sponsor entities ^([2]) in conjunction with efforts of  David Rockefeller ^([3]), Robert Pastor, Anthony Lake, George W. Bush, Vicente Fox, and Zbignew Brezinski whose Trilateral Commission based in Georgia had The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in September 7, 2001 publish the editorial announcement that called for North American integration that therein stated   “The ultimate goal of any White House policy ought to be a North American economic and political alliance similar in scope and ambition to the European Union.”
7.   That Defendant Obama’s Indonesian Citizenship and multiple allegiances enabled the SMOM through its member knights especially Zbigniew Brzezinski to implement operations in Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and other countries including Africa where travel by U.S. Citizens on an American passport was prohibited or raised questionable allegiance in those authorities as to the purpose of travel into those countries.
8.  Zbigniew Brzezinski has a sworn oath of allegiance to the Roman Catholic Pope and to the leader of the SMOM who is now His Most Eminent Highness the Prince and Grand Master Fra’ Matthew FESTING ^([4]), and thereby has at least three allegiances in conflict with USA law.

That Article 2 Section 1 Clause 5 of the United States’ Constitution is controlling and only requires three qualifications be proven to be eligible for assuming the corporate office of the Presidency, i.e. an applicant shall be 35 years of age, 14 years resident of united States of America and a natural-born-citizen; this is a case of first impression about natural-born-citizen

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[1]   The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta (Italian: Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme di Rodi e di Malta) (known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta [SMOM], Order of Malta or Knights of Malta for short) is a Roman Catholic order based in Rome, Italy. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a sovereign subject of international law.

It takes its origins from the Knights Hospitaller, an organization founded in Jerusalem in 1050 as an Amalfitan hospital to provide care for poor and sick pilgrims to the Holy Land. After the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 during the First Crusade, it became a Catholic military order under its own charter. Following the loss of Christian held territories of the Holy Land to Muslims, the Order operated from Rhodes (1310–1523), and later from Malta (1530–1798), over which it was sovereign.

Although this state ended with the ejection of the Order from Malta by Napoleon, the Order as such survived. It retains its claims of sovereignty under international law and has been granted permanent observer status at the United Nations. SMOM is considered the main successor to the medieval Knights Hospitaller.

Today the order has 12,500 members; 80,000 permanent volunteers; and 20,000 medical personnel including doctors, nurses, auxiliaries and paramedics. The goal is to assist the elderly, the handicapped, refugees, children, the homeless, those with terminal illness and leprosy in five continents of the world, without distinction of race or religion. In several countries—including France, Germany and Ireland—the local associations of the Order are important providers of first aid training, first aid services and emergency medical services. Through its worldwide relief corps—Malteser International—the Order is also engaged to aid victims of natural disasters, epidemics and armed conflicts.

The International status of the Order with its unique history and unusual present circumstances, the exact status of the Order in international law has been subject of debate: it claims to be a traditional example of a sovereign entity other than a state.  Its two headquarters in Rome – the Palazzo Malta in Via dei Condotti 68, where the Grand Master resides and Government Bodies meet and the Villa Malta on the Aventine, which hosts the Grand Priory of Rome, the Embassy of the Order to Holy See and the Embassy of the Order to Italy–are granted extraterritoriality. 

However, unlike the Holy See—, which is sovereign over the Vatican City—SMOM has had no sovereign territory (other than a few properties in Italy with extraterritoriality only) since the loss of the island of Malta in 1798. The United Nations does not classify it as a “non-member state” but as one of the “entities and intergovernmental organizations having received a standing invitation to participate as observers.” For instance, while the International Telecommunication Union has granted radio identification prefixes to such quasi-sovereign jurisdictions as the United Nations and the Palestinian Authority, SMOM has never received one. For awards purposes, amateur radio operators consider SMOM to be a separate “entity”, but stations transmitting from there use an entirely unofficial call sign, starting with the prefix “1A”. Likewise, for internet identification, the SMOM has neither sought nor been granted a top-level domain, while Vatican City uses its own domain.

There are differing opinions as to whether a claim to sovereign status has been recognized. Ian Brownlie, Helmut Steinberger, and Wilhelm Wengler are among the experts who say that the claim has not been recognized. Even taking into account the Order’s ambassadorial status among many nations, a claim to sovereign status is sometimes rejected. The Order maintains diplomatic missions around the world and many of the states reciprocate by accrediting ambassadors to the Order. Wengler—a German professor of international law—addresses this point in his book Völkerrecht, and rejects the notion that recognition of the Order by some states can make it a subject of international law. Conversely, professor Rebecca Wallace—writing more recently in her book International Law—explains that a sovereign entity does not have to be a country, and that SMOM is an example of this. This position appears to be supported by the number of nations extending diplomatic relations to the Order, which more than doubled from 49 to 100 in the 20-year period to 2008. In 1953, the Holy See proclaimed “in the Lord‘s name” that the Order of Malta was only a “functional sovereignty”—due to the fact that it did not have all that pertained to true sovereignty, such as territory.

SMOM has formal diplomatic relations with 104 states and has official relations with another six countries, non-state subjects of international law like the European Community and International Committee of the Red Cross, and a number of international organizations. Its international nature is useful in enabling it to pursue its humanitarian activities without being seen as an operative of any particular nation. It has claimed sovereignty is also expressed in the issuance of passports, license plates, stamps, and coins. The coincidence of Rome being the capital of the Italian Republic, the Holy See and the Order of Malta leads to a high density of diplomatic instances in the city.

The coins are appreciated more for their subject matter rather than for use as currency, however, their postage stamps have been gaining acceptances among Universal Postal Union member nations.

The SMOM began issuing euro-denominated postage stamps in 2005, although the scudo remains the official currency of the SMOM. Also in 2005, the Italian post agreed with the SMOM to deliver internationally most classes of mail other than registered, insured, and special-delivery mail; before this agreement, the following countries recognized SMOM stamps for franking purposes:  Argentina, Austria, Benin, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Gabon, Georgia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, Hungary, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Lithuania, Madagascar, Mali, Montenegro, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia. San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, Togo, Uruguay, Vatican City.

[2]          America 2050 and its agents operate as a national initiative associated with elements of the Intelligence community including the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency that as a private unelected entity is used to meet the infrastructure, economic development and environmental challenges of the nation as we prepare to add about 130 million additional Americans by the year 2050; and is guided by the National Committee for America 2050, a coalition of regional planners, scholars, and policy-makers develop a framework for the nation’s future growth considers trends such as: 

A major focus of America 2050 is the emergence of megaregions – large networks of metropolitan areas, where most of the population growth by mid-century will take place. Examples of megaregions are the Northeast Megaregion, from Boston to Washington, or Southern California, from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico. They comprise multiple, adjacent metropolitan areas connected by overlapping commuting patterns, business travel, environmental landscapes and watersheds, linked economies, and social networks. At least ten megaregions have been identified in the United States.

In Europe and Southeast Asia, governments are investing tens of billions of dollars in high-speed rail and goods movement systems to connect networks of cities in what are termed “global integration zones.” These counterparts to America’s megaregions are increasingly being viewed as the new competitive units in the global economy, where knowledge workers can move freely among urban hubs. Economic regeneration strategies are also being deployed at this scale, to transition former industrial regions to the new information economy.

America 2050 is serving as a clearinghouse for research on the emergence of Megaregion and a resource for Megaregion planning efforts nationwide. Its aim is to advance research on the emergence of this new urban form while promoting planning solutions to address challenges that span state and regional boundaries, demand cooperation / coordination at the Megaregion scale; America 2050 supporters: The Rockefeller Foundation; The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; The Surdna Foundation; The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy; The J.M. Kaplan Fund; AECOM; Park Foundation; The William Penn Foundation; STV Group, Inc.; The Ford Foundation.

 [3]   “For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring

with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.” David Rockefeller in his Memoirs (2002) made this incredible admission against interest.

[4] The Council Complete of State elects the Prince and Grand Master for life from the Professed Knights.  According to the Constitution, as the religious Superior and Sovereign, he must fully dedicate himself to the development of the works of the Order and to set an example of living by Christian principles, to all the members of the Order.  He is vested with supreme authorities.  Together with the Sovereign Council the Grand Master issues the legislative measures not covered by the Constitutional Charter, promulgates government acts, manages Common Treasure assets, ratifies international agreement and the summoning of the Chapter General.  The States with which the Order has diplomatic relations recognize the Grand Master with the prerogatives, immunities and honors reserved for Head of State.

The title of Most Eminent Highness is bestowed on the Grand Master and the Holy Roman Church confers him the rank of Cardinal. 

The Grand Master resides at the Order’s seat of government in Via Condotti in Rome.

Profile of His Most Eminent Highness the Prince and Grand Master Fra’ Matthew Festing

Fra’ Matthew Festing, an Englishman, was elected Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta on 11th March 2008 by the Council Complete of State of the Order of Malta. He succeeds Fra’ Andrew Bertie, 78th Grand Master (1988-2008), who died on 7 February.

Born in Northumberland on 30 November 1949, educated at Ampleforth and St. John’s College Cambridge, where he read history, Fra’ Matthew, an art expert, has for most of his professional life worked at an international art auction house. As a child, he lived in Egypt and Singapore, where his father, Field Marshal Sir Francis Festing, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, had earlier postings. He is also descended from Sir Adrian Fortescue, a knight of Malta, who was martyred in 1539.

Fra’ Matthew Festing served in the Grenadier Guards and holds the rank of colonel in the Territorial Army. He was appointed OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen and served as one of her Deputy Lieutenants in the county of Northumberland.

He became a member of the Sovereign Order of Malta in 1977, and took solemn religious vows in 1991, becoming a Professed Knight of the Order. Between 1993 and 2008 he was the Grand Prior of England. In this role, he led missions of humanitarian aid to Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia after the recent disturbances in those countries, and he attended the Order’s international annual pilgrimage to Lourdes.

Since September 2008, he has been an honorary citizen of the city of Rapallo in Italy.
In October 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Degree of Humane Letters by Catholic University of America.

When Government Doesn’t Hear the People, The People Should IGNORE Washington!

AMERICANS VOICED OBJECTIONS 1,000 TO 1 ON NAFTA.. AND WERE LAUGHED AT, IT PASSED ANYWAY!?

Posted By: watcher51445 <Send E-Mail>
Date: Thursday, 11-Mar-2010 06:00:00  

In Response To: FINALLY!! – A Bill To Get The US OUT Of NAFTA (Susoni)

Back when these ‘UnAmerican, UnConstitutional “Monsters” known as NAFTA, CAFTA etc were first brought before the We the People.. the We the People were outraged; 1000 to 1 objected.. The U.S. House and Senate Members passed them.. and laughed at WE the People. 1988-89-90.. Again 1,000 to 1 objections to the activities of then president G.H.W. Bush… When Senator Reagle was asked what happened to those ‘objections’ mailed in by WE the People requesting “Impeachment of president G.H.W. Bush”.. He laughed and responded: “We shredded them and threw them out.” Those “Corporate Entities” of NAFTA and CAFTA etc.. have not paid a penny in tax or duty’s.. They were tax free. When this Nation was set up.. Tax’s collected on Duties and Imposts on IMPORTS was what was used to RUN AND PAY FOR THE “CIVIL SERVANT’S” in Washington D.C. WE NEED THE JOBS FROM THE MANUFACTURING AND INDUSTRIAL’S HERE AT HOME..

“We can get NOTHING FURTHER from Washington.  Our liberty has always been in our own hands.  Washington only has the authority we give it or surrender to.”  –Stella Oakman 

Washington has become nothing more than a propaganda machine and psychological warfare center against the American people.  It is time to stop buying their bogus illusion of power and to live free with local sustainability restored.

61%ers Share Their Thoughts

In response to this article from Chuck’s group, Dave Leach, of the Citcug group (both groups are part of the 61%), shares these thoughts:  (Stella’s response is below Dave’s)

I don’t know who this Chuck is, but praying is NOT going to help us now.  The maker gave us a free mind to do what needs to be done. Unfortunately, most are not using their minds in the right way. This is why we all are being taken advantage of by ALL politicians.

As it stands today there is no nice way to regain control other than by force from all of us. I am so tired of reading e-mails about all the atrocities, and yet no one seems to want to (git er dun) as the cable guy says. This one or that one wants donations for their agenda, but the REAL agenda won’t cost a dime. Yes it will take great effort and we may have to step back in time: (No Internet, No Cell Phones, ect.) but a concentrated effort on all the so called Patriots parts can and will get done what needs to be done. Each and every site on this damn internet needs to get on the same page at the same time. One thing we all have to realise is it may and can be shut down at anytime. Senate bills S 773 and S 778. What do we do then? Twiddle our thumbs?

As far as taking names, we all know them by heart.
Yes, I’m thourohly disgusted with what I now call a rat race by sites on here. I have to wonder how many sitting at their computers and spending hours typing or telling us about the atrocities, would have the nerve to get off their butts and take the actions really needed to turn this country back around.
Talk is really cheap. We all know actions speak louder than any words.
Feel free to pass this on if you like.

Stella’s response:

I have been trying to find time to compile groups that make up the 61% of us (from the Rasmussen poll that said 61% of us do not believe this government has our consent to govern).  www.wethepeople61.com (get your Free t-shirt design here to inform people).
 
It is important folks realize WE THE PEOPLE are the VAST MAJORITY–Filibuster-Proof, Super Majority and OUR AGENDA STANDS.  Washington is just blowing smoke up everyone’s *ss!  IGNORE THEM!
 
Washington is nothing but a propaganda, psyops machine right now.  Trying to scare us into believing their ‘illusion’ of power is real.  Make them prove their power.  We don’t need to go gunning for them.  We just need to follow an agenda that ensures our liberty.  The people should continue on in building local currencies that free them from the fraudulent Federal Reserve System designed to enslave us.  With a local currency and a Currency Board that extends time-based credit to everyone for working towards the community’s self-sufficiency, folks can walk away from their government jobs (where they are being asked to work against the American people) and be able to subsist in their local economy. 
 
With us organized locally, they will have to bring out the troops to have any success at enslaving us.  But if the world sees the American people ignoring Washington, organizing their own communities for economic success, no one will come here to give up their life needlessly by trying to enslave an American people that WON’T BE ENSLAVED because we won’t have to beg for food!!!!
 
If we don’t organize locally, however, Washington (aka UN) will get their desired chaos that will help them to enslave us. 
 
“Organize locally or die” should be the rallying phrase of the 61%ers!!!!
 
Even working at the State level will not feed your families when the SHTF.  Though folks in the cities better focus there.  Rural folks better up their farming capacity in anyway they can.  City dwellers should be growing hydroponic gardens if they want to have food to eat. 
 
Yes, Dave, we can do without internet, TV, cell phones, etc, but food is another matter entirely.    

Steve Lynes pipes in with some good reminders:

And don’t forget water. I have installed 55 gallon rain collection barrels at all of my downspouts. Water is a huge issue as well. I totally agree with Stella in that if we are not dependent on some form of government for our livelihood then they lose control of us. I am doing everything I can to be self sufficient from planting as many edible perennials and fruit trees as I can and installing raised vegetable and herb gardens, rabbits, chickens, solar panels, etc. Stella’s approach is the way to start things off and if they then attempt to force us to do something we don’t want or try to prevent us from being self sufficient then we have the moral justification to defend ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. They must make the first move though.  We can not be seen as starting anything as at that point we lose all credibility and justification for our cause of freedom. As Mike V. of Sipsey Street Irregulars always says, “No more Fort Sumters.”

“To be born free is an accident, to live free is our responsibility, to die free is our obligation.“

Stella again:

PS: Don’t believe the bogus false flags this government will perpetrate in order to make patriots believe one of our own took the first shot (even beyond Joe Stack which was a government job).  It is best to sit and wait for them to try to enslave us.  HOWEVER, DAVE IS RIGHT THAT DOING SOMETHING IS REQUIRED.  We must organize our communities for self-sufficiency and self-preservation after the government tries to physically curtail our rights. 

Grow hydroponic gardens indoors starting now!  You can make everything you need with just a few items.  Search for details online.  Turn one room into a growing room with a grow light, plastic storage container tanks to hold your plants (or other material would be better).  Add some nutrients and you can have tomatoes in 5-6 weeks! 

Read about how to use everyday herbs you can grow to cure most medical problems.  Grow those you will need.  Don’t forget garlic!  Barter for local honey as it will help you with allergies. 

Plan now your community needs with anyone who will listen and wants to get involved.  Learn to can your hydroponic or garden produce.  Train your family for emergency situations and what to do.  

Let the government come to us–where we KNOW the terrain, the people and the local resources.  To do anything else is foolish, dangerous and against the principles of liberty.

Liberty starts in your heart and you carve out a life of liberty around you by loving God and loving your neighbors as yourself.  Arms for defense are necessary if the government challenges your community’s right to be self-sufficient. 

IGNORE THEM!!!  Paying attention to them is playing into their hands.  Like a magician, who distracts so you don’t see his slight of hand, they want you FOCUSED ON WASHINGTON, while they work in your local communities against you. 

Don’t believe they are there?  Look at your police departments?  Are they trying to put windmills in your town?  What else are they promising with bailout money?  If we watch them, we won’t have the food, water, power that we need to survive. 

 “We can get NOTHING FURTHER from Washington.  Our liberty has always been in our own hands.  Washington only has the authority we give it or surrender to.”  Stella Oakman

61%ers in New Jersey’s Tax Revolt, Apr 15

As part of the strategy building, the shot across the bow starts in Trenton on 4-15.

 

Sample email from one NJ team leader:

 

 “We are seeking to get each member of each group to commit to organizing their towns with the goal of delivering the same list of tax grievences and unconstitutional local mandates with the demand our town councils reduce taxes by 50% stop sending to the state, the part of the taxes collected in town that fund unconstitutional spending.  (Like part of state sales taxes).

 

I hope you will join in and get others to do so as well.

 

We have the battle plan.  We need bodies.”

 

Please, read below:

We mean to make it a bona fide tax revolt.

 

We mean to do the “Martin Luther” thing, instead of nailing demands to the Church door, we mean to have a list of grievences to hand to Christie or what ever minion he sends out and the NJ Legislature.

 

We need a huge showing for most impact.

 

People are rabid to be proactive.

 

We are putting some very proactive plans in place, we need to get as many groups and members on board with this as possible and the time frame is very short.  We need every member to bring their fellow taxpayers. 

 

To give you an idea of the list:

 

1.)  Tax revolt, demanding an immediate 50% decrease in taxes, the minimum amount they collect for anti-constitutional spending with an itemized list of what is to get cut by the state.

 

2.) On recall, Nina Wells denied the recall petition on the grounds that recalls are unconstitutional.” Some of you may or may not know that Christie and his AG are siding against the people on recall and standing with the old Admin and Nina Wells.  We will be demanding Christie and his AG WITHDRAW their support for  Nina and against recall and ORDER the AG to grant the recall petition.

 

3.)  Immediate change of policy from safe harbor for illegals to seeking out, prosecuting and deporting every illegal found. Assess draconian fines to all employers who employ them and even heavier fines for employers who pay them off the books.

 

3.)  Immediate defunding of ALL ACORN businesses, suspension of their business licences and order an investigation for fraud under RICO and Statute of fraud, covering their scams on registration, vote and mortgage fraud.

 

4.) Immediate order to Board of Elections to validate ALL ACORN registrations since 1998 under light of day citizen review panel.

 

5.) Defunding ALL social services for illegal aliens, including housing, welfare, medical, food stamps, tuitions, COAH, ABBOTT, college grants and loans.  Same for legal residents.  If they are not working, (gov’ts justification for letting them in, then cancel their work visas and  send them home. 

 

6.)  A NJ Constitutional Amendment with the right of secession, referendum, initiative and reasonabe protocols for the citizens to put into place.

 

7.) Legislation requiring the NJ Senate and Assembly vet all future legislation to pass constitutional muster before it can be considered. And further, any mandates/laws/spending from DC must be subject to Constitutional validation.

 

8.) Legislation requiring the NJ Senate and Assembly to repeal all anti-constitutional laws, spending and mandates.

 

9.) Christie to ORDER the Board of Elections and Sec’y of State/AG to VET THE ELIGIBILITY of Hussein.

 

For starters.   If perchance we have the go ahead on recall by that date, a sign the recall rally will be added to it.

 

I am of the opinion that NJ TPPs HUNGER for proactivity, are tired of hurry up, wait and accomplish nothing.

 

Part and parcel of this plan, is the strategy of starting from the ground up, recruiting people to recruit people from their own towns, sell the tax revolt and get every local homeowner to town committee meetings.  Demand they reduce all real estate tax bills in town by the 50%, the amount sent out of town for anti-constitutional spending and the amount they charge us for unconstitutional mandates in our towns, (think COAH as but ONE example) by the state. 

 

We will deliver as locals to our local committees the same list as above.  We will no longer permit our towns to assess us and charge us for anti-constitutional expenditures and all tax bill expenditures sent to us must pass constitutional muster.

 

We need to organize town by town, if we can get our towns to reduce the local bills and spending, we take away the state’s confiscatory power, and the towns, power to execute tax leins.

 

But bottom line, is this movement requires massive amounts of people.

 

There is common sense to the tax revolt, the issue crosses party lines, even those who are apolitical perk up and get interested when it comes to the idea of reducing their own tax bill by half.

 

I know.  I have tested it with many liberals/Democrats and many otherwise apolitical people, they have all jumped on it asking “Where and when do I show?”

 

If we are to wrest our state and ultimately, our power to self govern, we MUST all rise up with one loud, relentless voice.  In TRENTON, not DC.

 

And the most effective way to do that, is starve the beast.

 

At the presentation, I will itemize many of the anti-constitutional expenditures their real estate taxes are paying for.  I will demonstrate that as the illegals poured into this state, our real estate taxes rose to the point of doubling in many areas.

 

We have to get people off their asses and fired up. 

 

And we have to start in our own back yards. 

 

We begiin in earnest by recruiting our own locals to the movement, town by town.  If we can get half of the 587 NJ towns involved, that would be huge.  Most NJ towns are not big cities.  It is there that taxpayers are being extorted. 

 

But believe it or not, the homeowners in the cities, like Newark, Irvington, Jersey City are as livid about what they see as extortion, strongarmed thru confiscatory blackmail by abusers of their offices and in the cities, this anger is exacerbated by all the corruption there.

 

Other issues for the list from Peter:

-State should refuse all unfunded mandates

-audit cost of all federal programs.  Begin deducting this from taxes paid to the federal government, begin phasing out programs  or turning them over to the state/municipalities.  This is very important for education.  Get the feds out of the schools.

-demand Christies support for SCR81 and ACR238, push assembly and senate on this.

-make sure Christie keeps up efforts to push state union employees to pay their own way.

-make sure teachers aren’t required to join the union, and if they don’t, they don’t pay “reduced” dues.

61%er LOGO is HERE!!!

If you want to raise awareness with more folks regarding how our government is NOT following the Constitution, what better way than using the 61% poll from Rasmussen? 

You see there is safety in numbers when you are challenging the government.  When folks realize that the conspiracy theorists are now the VAST MAJORITY and that WE THE PEOPLE have a Filibuster-Proof, Supermajority giving us a mandate to CHANGE/ALTER or ABOLISH this government, who WOULDN’T want to get involved?!!!

These designs are provided to all of us 61%ers and growing from Enemy Artist kristofeR.  Visit his website on the right.  Leave him a message saying, “thank you for your time in providing us this work for FREE.”

Make your own t-shirts for events, sell them to raise money for local efforts.  Spread the word.  And just so you know, this site IS NOT about lobbying Washington.  It is NOT about raising money for us to become more important.  We are ONLY trying to raise awareness among the real government–WE THE PEOPLE–that we have the means to turn this thing around!!!

This is a movement of thought, a movement of celebration that we are the VAST MAJORITY!!  It is to celebrate each and every one of us within this Super Majority.  And to toss around ideas in which we can formulate some steps we might take in our local areas to regain a legitimate government OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE and FOR THE PEOPLE!!

WE THE PEOPLE RULE!!  And we are 61% and growing.  Get the word out!!!!

Here are the designs.  Select the one you like and ‘save as’ into a jpg file you can convert for t-shirts, armbands, etc.

                                     

                                 

At Least They Know SOMETHING About the Constitution

Most Americans Don’t Believe Cities Can Prevent Citizens From Owning Handguns
RTTNews
March 6, 2010

A new Rasmussen Reports survey released Friday showed that most Americans do not believe that city governments have the right to prevent citizens from owning handguns.

According to the survey, 69% of Americans do not believe cities can prevent citizens from owning handguns [emphasis ours].  Only 25% believe that cities do have such a right.

The survey comes as the Supreme Court is wrestling with a major case questioning whether Chicago’s handgun ban violates the Second Amendment.

The high number stems from the fact that the survey found that 70% of Americans believe that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of an average citizen to own a gun.

In terms of gun control, the numbers were more mixed. The survey found that 42% of Americans favor stricter gun control laws, while 49% said that stricter laws are not needed.

Among Democrats, 65% said that they are in favor of stricter gun control laws, while 65% of Republicans said that stricter laws are not needed. Among Independents, 52% said stricter laws are not needed.

We Think Dan is Safely in the 61%!!

When In The Course Of Human Events
by Dan Rhiel
March 03, 2010

That this inexperienced travesty of a chief executive, Obama, more a
byproduct of timing and media collaboration, than his own worth, or
accomplishment, is personally advocating for the so-called nuclear
option is the final straw.

It’s official. After months of threatening to push the button on
the so-called nuclear option, reconciliation — the parliamentary
maneuver that Harry Reid said “nobody” is talking about and that
President Obama said Americans didn’t care about last week — is a go.

Reconcile this, you distasteful, malevolent little quisling punk – a
timely reminder of some words I never thought would have such import
during my lifetime.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The cause is well known and it is just. When the alleged leader of a
democratic republic places his own wishes so above those of the
complete body politic, he is no longer worthy of the title, leader, no
matter what office he might occupy.

Only a fool with no clear appreciation of, or for, America past and
present, would dare undertake what this pustule in the White House is
attempting to do. It is contingent upon the Republican Party to
undertake every step, every maneuver it can to bring this government
to a halt.

Tell me now how wrong Bunning was to do as he did, yesterday? Whose
side are those Republicans who didn’t support him really on, ours, or
merely their own? If the GOP lacks the courage, or the ability to stop
this pathetic power grab by the un-American, decadent Left – an
ideology that has already failed over and over throughout much of the
world – then it becomes not just a right, but a responsibility for the
American people to take their country back from the political elites
that have already bankrupted it. And after that, they now seek to do
even more harm by capitalizing on a crisis.

They confessed as much via ex-ballerina Rahm Emanuel, hence, they
deserve no respect, or just due, as they are self-admittedly, an
unjust crew. It is time to stop this government in its tracks, take it
back democratically in the fall, or it then becomes time to bring this
government down.

This neophyte, this joke we have in the White House has absolutely no
idea of the force and the rage he is about to unleash on him and his
entire political party. If there are not enough responsible adults
left within his party to rein in this accidental, affirmative action
jerk, this self-styled, extremely flawed little man, then his party is
worthless to America. It deserves to be marginalized electorally and,
ultimately, utterly destroyed, before being relegated to the dung heap
of history with the rest of the marxist, socialist clowns Americans
have dispatched before.

Reconciliation for this disaster of a destructive health care bill I
doubt anyone on the Hill can fully define means all out war. The only
question remaining is, whose side are you on?

Free People – We started signed the Declaration of Independence, Ver 2.0 last May.  Glad to see others are finally waking up to the reality that this government is ‘governing’ without our consent.  They have left the contract with us called the Constitution.  Therefore, their actions are null and void and of no effect to us sovereign individuals.  Have you signed it?  HERE

What Some 61%ers Are Saying

Ohio Mayor Seeks To Eliminate Public Unions; Come Senators, Congressmen Please Heed the Call For the Times they are A-Changin’

By Mike “Mish” Shedlock, Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Mayor Don Robart of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio is seeking to eliminate public sector unions. That is certainly a welcome event and hopefully the start of a major trend towards fiscal sanity in cities across the country.

I found out about Mayor Robart when someone sent a link to a blog journal called Smell the Change: Ohio Mayor Suggests It’s Time To Eliminate Public Sector Unions.

Here are some snips blog writer Doug Ross compiled from Mayor Robart’s annual State of the City Address.

…as we now know, the jobs creation promise of 2009 nationally has more closely resembled a nightmare. With unemployment a year ago at 8%, it is currently over 10% and since the signing of the stimulus bill, we have lost 2.8 million jobs. These job loss figures clearly have a direct effect on state and city budgets. Cuyahoga Falls is no exception. Cities essentially rely on two forms of revenue: property taxes and income taxes. In 2009, we saw both of these revenue sources decline.

In response to these significant drops in revenue, we mandated that the nonbargaining employees accept a wage freeze along with six furlough days. Additionally where applicable, we would cease the ability to sell back vacation and sick leave. I am proud of the AFSCME union which was the first union to step forward and agree to our proposal. Our Fire union, the UWUA electric union and finally the dispatchers, followed shortly. Unfortunately, we did not get concessions from the two police unions, which necessitated the loss of three patrolmen and a community service officer. Additionally, four sergeants were reduced to patrolman status.

In Cuyahoga Falls, we will be negotiating with all six of our public employee unions. We do not anticipate these negotiations will be easy, however, with a keen eye on fiscal responsibility, the administration will be resolute in its demands to lower expenses. And indeed, with payroll representing 75–80% of our general fund budget, the public sector unions are the obvious place to go.

Which brings up the question that I have raised in this forum in the past: Is it time to eliminate public sector unions?

The history of public sector unions goes back to 1962 when President John F. Kennedy signed executive order 10988 allowing unionization of the federal workforce. This changed everything in the American political system. President Kennedy’s order swung open the door for the unrelenting rise of the unionized public workforce in many states and cities.

And of course, 47 years ago, the American workforce landscape looked very different. As recently as 1980, there were more than twice as many private sector union members than there were public sectors. Today 51.4% of Americans 15.4 million [union] workers are employed by the government. This is the first time in American history that there are more public sector union members than there are private. So my question is, can we the taxpayers continue to afford this expense?

…As we can see from the desperate economic and fiscal woes of California, New Jersey, New York and other states with dominant public unions; this has become a major problem for the U.S. economy and smaller “d” democratic governance. The agenda for American political reform needs to include the breaking of public unions’ power to capture an even larger share of private income.

Thanks for those snips, Doug.

The real thanks however, go to Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don Robart who had the courage to say what needs to be said. Every trend change starts with 1, a single person willing to do something different.

I am aware of no other mayors expressing those views. Moreover, Cuyahoga Falls, is a fair sized city, close to 50,000 in the last census. Good luck mayor, we wish you well.

Voters Say No To Tax Hikes In Colorado Springs

In Colorado Springs, Colorado City removes trash cans, streetlights to save cash.

If you come to a neighborhood park in Colorado Springs, plan on bringing your own trash bags. To save money, the city has removed the trash cans.

Need to catch a bus? Don’t try on evenings or weekends. The city has cut that service, too. And when the sun goes down, Colorado Springs is going to look a little bit dimmer. Crews are removing a third of the city’s streetlight to save money on electricity and light bulbs.

It’s not a new concept in Colorado Springs, touted on some Web sites as a “libertarian paradise.” The city’s garbage collection, zoo and philharmonic are all privately funded.

The city is even auctioning off its police helicopters on the Internet.

The problem with this response is stopping garbage collection in parks will not save much. The real meat on the bone is union wages and pensions. However, the fact that the city’s garbage collection, zoo and philharmonic are all privately funded is certainly welcome.

Colorado Springs needs to take the next step of privatizing the fire department, or better yet, going to a volunteer fire department.

Change Comes To Jersey City

In Hudson County New Jersey, Members of Jersey City MUA and Incinerator Authority have to start paying toward health insurance.

Members of the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority and Jersey City Incinerator Authority may have to start paying for their health benefits.

Councilman Steven Fulop tried to introduce ordinances Wednesday night that would have eliminated the benefits altogether, but failed to muster the necessary votes.

The council instead introduced a measure, backed by Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, that would limit health insurance to the member and eliminate family coverage.

The board members would also have to pay 20 percent of the cost of the premium. Currently, the agency foots the entire bill.

“This ordinance is a compromise ordinance in that it allows for a substantial savings while at the same time allowing the commissioners to pay a portion of their premium to maintain health coverage,” Healy said in a statement yesterday.

According to a memo Healy sent council members, Fulop’s proposal would have saved $287,569 and the “compromise ordinances” would save $155,294.
“It is absolutely shameful in a time when the lowest level city employees were laid off, they grant health benefits to politically connected cronies that the taxpayers fund,” Fulop said. “Most of the City Council and administration clearly do not understand how they are hurting the regular taxpayers.”

Fulop and Councilwoman Viola Richardson voted against Healy’s ordinances. Councilman Bill Gaughan abstained on the MUA vote since his daughter, Eileen, is chairwoman and Councilwoman Willie Flood abstained on the JCIA vote because her husband is chairman.

Councilman Steven Fulop had the right idea “eliminate the benefits altogether”. Notice the two complete wimps, Councilman Bill Gaughan and Councilwoman Willie Flood opting out of a vote, effectively preserving huge benefits for their daughter and husband respectively.

Nonetheless a change was made in the right direction. Expect to see similar changes elsewhere.

Atlanta Must Change Pension Approach

An editorial opinion in the Atlanta Journal Constitution says City must change pension approach.

A sobering report released last week by the pension reform panel convened by Mayor Kasim Reed clearly laid out the city’s red-ink problem.

In part, Atlanta’s payments toward pensions have risen 13 percent annually during the past decade. The city paid out $144 million for pensions last year, up 162 percent from 2001’s $55 million cost.

Worse yet, the gap between the funded and unfunded portions of the pension plans has grown 21 percent a year since 2001. That means the plans are now barely more than halfway funded. In 2001, 83 percent was covered.

For the sake of taxpayers, the city must choose quickly on how to climb out of its pension hole. Paying roughly 20 percent of the city’s general fund budget for pensions is simply not sustainable. Fixing the problem will require sacrifices from both the city and its public servants.

The big reforms should apply to non-vested current workers and future hires. That means a two-tier benefits system going forward.

That said, the city should also consider rolling back at least part of the formula changes that boosted pension costs in 2001 and 2005.

The Journal did not go far enough in its recommendations. However, the Journal did recognize the system is insolvent, in need of change, and its recommendation of a two-tiered pension system is a big step in the right direction if it happens.

Bob Dylan Revisited

In regards to public pensions, Bob Dylan was right, just 45 years early.

However, there is always change, something that Dylan recognized in his protest song
The Times They Are A-Changin’. Think about how attitudes towards Russia and China have changed and the pace of that change compared with technology changing. Technology changes orders of magnitudes faster than attitudes regarding unions and pensions.

Here is a pertinent verse to sing.

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

— Bob Dylan

Inspiration and Composition

Inquiring minds might be interested in the Inspiration and Composition for the song.

Dylan appears to have written the song in September and October 1963. Dylan recalled writing the song as a deliberate attempt to create an anthem of change for the moment.

Dylan critic Michael Gray called it “the archetypal protest song.” Gray commented, “Dylan’s aim was to ride upon the unvoiced sentiment of a mass public—to give that inchoate sentiment an anthem and give its clamour an outlet.

Literary critic Christopher Ricks suggests that the song transcends the political preoccupations of the time in which it was written. Ricks argues that Dylan is still performing the song, and when he sings “Your sons and your daughter/Are beyond your command”, he sings inescapably with the accents not of a son, no longer perhaps primarily a parent, but with the attitude of a grandfather.

Ricks concludes: “Once upon a time it may have been a matter of urging square people to accept the fact that their children were, you know, hippies. But the capacious urging could then come to mean that ex-hippie parents had better accept that their children look like becoming yuppies. And then Republicans…”

Less than a month after Dylan recorded the song, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. The next night, Dylan opened a concert with “The Times They Are a-Changin'”; he told biographer Anthony Scaduto: “I thought, ‘Wow, how can I open with that song? I’ll get rocks thrown at me.’ But I had to sing it, my whole concert takes off from there.

I found a You-Tube clip of Dylan singing The Times They Are A-Changin’.

Dylan is at some small obscure bar early in his career. It’s a great clip, well worth a play, and the play is free, just not embeddable.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Are You a 61%er?!

WE THE PEOPLE Have a Fillibuster-Proof, Super Majority AND WILL BLOCK THIS GOVERNMENT FROM FURTHER ACTION!!

By Beth Bridgman (aka Stella Oakman)

All last spring I wrote about the media’s dirty little secret:  WE THE PEOPLE (referring here to those who understand a Republic form of government is, “a government of the people, by the people, for the people,”) are the vast majority. 
 
For months the media has tried to lead us to believe that we gave our consent to this usurpation in Washington by all three branches of the government via the 2008 election.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  With the media’s help, the powers that be behind the curtain of global secret machinations, have carried out an almost masterful charade to install a usurper ‘President’ in the White House. 
 
If not for WE THE PEOPLE, they very well may have succeeded.  But finally, Rasmussen,  has printed the bold truth: 61% “say the government does not have the necessary consent” to govern us.    
 
NOTE:  There is every reason to believe the 61% of us were of this mind BEFORE the 2008 election.  However, through control of the election apparatuses, including a complicit media, many believed the election was accurate and have gone along with the process because we the people honor this process and believed it was just.   
 
Regardless, using only the 60% rule, this usurping government has seized full legislative control with the stroke of a pen, facilitated by a Democratic Super Majority (with the majority in the House and 60 Democratic Senators).  When all branches of the government concede to the Chief Executive, then we know they have reduced our legislative process from one of representative government to dictatorial rule. 
 
The Senate today enjoys the enviable right of being ‘filibuster-proof.’  Just what does this mean?  According to Wikipedia, “A filibuster, or “speaking or talking out a bill”, is a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body whereby one attempts to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a proposal by extending a debate on that proposal. A popular saying is ‘filibuster it to death!'” [emphasis mine]  So, with a guaranteed 60 vote in their favor, the Democrats do not have to worry about the minorities’ right to ‘filibuster.’ 
 
However, with a 61%, WE THE PEOPLE have removed the Super Majority status of this usurping government.  Therefore, we reserve the right to ‘filibuster’ their unConstitutional actions.  WE THE PEOPLE will keep our liberties in tact by the following ‘filibuster’ measures:
 
1) We will turn off all MSM media and starve the beast.  Not only will our time be better spent doing something else, but we will have our own minds back free of their ‘mind control’ techniques.  And while we are working locally, we should really consider ways to impede the local news bureaus in each community.  Disrupt their ‘illusionary’ power supply.
 
2) We will ignore Washington.  All the ink in the world will never make the usurp government OUR representative government.  We will work within our local communities to restore local self-sufficiency.  Over the last several decades, the steady move towards communism (or globalism) has created an economy that is centrally planned and controlled removing from our own communities the ability to sustain ourselves.  Public utilities are owned by foreigners.  Water is managed and controlled by the Washington EPA.  Farms are providing food the world over while our own communities may not be provided for when the prices go up.
 
3) We will NOT pay taxes to a government that has usurped the power from the will of the people.  We will pay taxes when there is a representative government in place that will follow the Constitution.  We will implement local bartering and local currencies with which we can retain our taxes at the local levels of government.  First we will ensure these local governments are representative of the people.  If they are not, we must start anew.  Through a debt holiday, everyone will stop paying their mortgages, credit cards and other bills, stay in their homes and keep their cars until such time that a money that is free and clear of usurpation control can be reestablished.  Through local taxes, retirees and disabled folks will be provided for.  However, many retirees can be contribute greatly to the self-sufficiency initiatives required at the local level.  See the Free People Money System for more ideas.  Information for a County-level approach can be found at Liberty For Life.  If this is too scary for some of the 61%, consider that the government must do something severe to save the economy before even 20% don’t pay their taxes because they don’t OWE any taxes.  There is no way this government can operate (without even grosser fraud than they do today) by the end of May when the taxes get adjusted.  Are you really expecting they will refund your money when they are considering hijacking your 401k’s?  This seems radical, but it may be the only way that WE THE PEOPLE can work together to fend off very disastrous effects of the collapse of the economy at a time of their choosing.
 
4) We will make known our 61% Super Majority status to EVERYONE.  We will write it on everything we sign, send and wear.  We will post it on signs in our yards and on our cars.  We will share the message with everyone we know.  You see, liberty can NOT be taken away from a citizenry who will NOT be enslaved!! 
 
5) We will embrace every patriot group that is in this 61% as this is the overriding issue that connects us all.  It is from this position that we can reclaim our Republic and maintain our freedom and liberty. 
 
Will there be blowback from the government?  They will likely try a few things, but if we move fast, that 61% will become 81% (getting those undecided folks to our side) and we will WIN a velvet revolution–the Change WE THE PEOPLE believe in!!
 
We don’t need arms for this one.  We just need to use our head, our voices and our hearts to encourage everyone in the 20% of undecided.  Through a velvet revolution here, WE THE PEOPLE can free the entire rest of the world from the control of the evil secretive global oligarch. 

NOTE:  If our filibuster does NOT work, we will need to prepare for further steps of resistance as tyranny is NOT an option for a free people.
 
 
The Liberty of Numbers:
 
3% – During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists.  The Three Percent today are gun owners who will not disarm, will not compromise and will no longer back up at the passage of the next gun control act. Three Percenters say quite explicitly that we will not obey any further circumscription of our traditional liberties and will defend ourselves if attacked.
 
10% – During the American Revolution, the Three Percenters were in turn actively supported by approximately 10% of the population.
 
15%-20% – During the American Revolution, 15% stayed loyal to Britian.
 
18% – Today, 18% of the people are not sure if the government has the consent of the governed.
 
20% or more – During the American Revolution, another unknown percentage of folks supported the action of the Three Percenters though perhaps not directly.
 
56%+/-3 – CNN Poll says, “Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree.”  Interesting that this poll came out about 5 days after the Rasmussen Report which says 61% do not believe the federal government enjoys the consent of the governed.  Because with the margin of error, the highest this poll would reflect is 59% which would be just shy of the filibuster-proof mandate WE THE PEOPLE enjoy.  
 
60% – The percentage necessary in the Senate for one party to achieve filibuster-proof control of legislation.
 
61% – According to a Rasmussen poll on Feb 18, 2010, 61% of the people today do NOT believe Washington enjoys the consent of the governed.
 
79% – Our goal is to convert the 18% who are undecided creating an unbelieveable majority to the side of liberty.  The other 21%, well, as Samuel Adams said, “may posterity forget ye were our countrymen.”  

What is Being Proposed by the 61%s? 

If you have a patriot group that is part of the 61%, please share this letter with everyone.  If there is any of the ‘filibuster’ points you take exception with, please so designate along with your endorsement of the ones you do agree to.

Perhaps this way we can see what the block of 61% is willing to do together to turn this tyranny around.  At the very least, we will begin to know where we might need to do further research to find a suitable option to address issues that Washington is leaving to implode at a later date. 

Post any comments at the website link just below the title.  Add the name of your group and the filibuster steps you are prepared to take at this time.  This way we will begin to capture a snapshot of the patriot movement and what we really mean when we say this government does not enjoy our consent. 

1st Endorsement by Clive Boustred at www.libertyforlife.com and www.coppercards.com

and www.gotfr.org

Hoping to add endorsements from:  Paul Revere Riders, Patriot Freedom, Jaghunter, SCMLA, American Defense Corps, Church at Kaweah, We Are Change LA and Austin, Kick Them All Out, and many, many more!!!  

Make this email go VIRAL so we can get the entire 61% together to determine some points we all agree to.