Saudi Arabia’s United States-backed attack on Yemen is contributing to the rise of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS) in Yemen. This is the verdict of Ron Paul Institute Academic Board Member Hillary Mann Leverett in a very informative interview on the CCTV show The Heat this week.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Friday morning, viewers of C-SPAN’s Washington Journal were treated to nearly an hour of in-depth discussion among Reps. Walter Jones (R-NC) and James McGovern (D-MA) and show host Peter Slen regarding the representatives’ efforts to bring to the United States House of Representatives floor debates and votes on whether to end or continue the US government’s various wars. The representatives, one a Republican and the other a Democrat, also discuss their newly created Constitutional War Study Group that will seek to regularly gather Congress members for education related to Congress’ constitutional war powers.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
On February 8, 2011, then-Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) spoke against renewing what he termed “the three worst parts” of the USA PATRIOT Act during a US House of Representatives debate over legislation that would do just that. The provisions, without congressional action, were set to sunset — cease being United States law. Paul’s side lost that evening. But, liberty-restricting provisions of the PATRIOT Act, including section 215, are set to automatically sunset on June 1 unless the Congress again passes legislation to extend them. If the so-called “do-nothing Congress” would just live up to that label in regard to this matter, advocates for liberty would have something to cheer about come June.
But, powerful forces are arrayed in support of Congress renewing the PATRIOT Act provisions before they expire. In the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is fast-tracking legislation to extend the soon to expire provisions another five years. In the House of Representatives, a newly-tweaked USA FREEDOM Act, which last year earned infamy for its support for government violation of freedom and the slimy process by which it advanced through the legislative process, may be pursued as an avenue to extend the about to expire PATRIOT Act provisions. Reauthorizing the provisions would facilitate the National Security Agency (NSA) and other US government agencies continuing to operate mass surveillance.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
You can hear a high level of outrage in the voice of Judge Andrew Napolitano when he discusses on the Alan Colmes Show on Tuesday the death of an American in police custody in Baltimore, Maryland and the use of United States drones to kill three more Americans overseas. Napolitano expresses outrage regarding the killings themselves, as well as processes followed in the Baltimore and US governments that facilitate such killings and hide their details.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Speaking April 11 in Austin at the University of Texas, former presidential candidate and United States House of Representatives member Ron Paul stressed the importance of ending the Federal Reserve. In particular, Paul explains how the Fed allows the US to pursue “perpetual war” and to put war profiteers in the military-industrial complex “on the gravy train.”
Paul, who serves as Chairman of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, made his remarks regarding the Federal Reserve and its relationship to war in a wide-ranging presentation before an audience including hundreds of college students. Paul’s presentation was part of the “Stop the Wars on Drugs and Terrorism” conference sponsored by the Future of Freedom Foundation and Young Americans for Liberty.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Many people perceive Texas as a bastion of rugged individualism and minimal government. Kansas not so much so. This month both states’ governments are moving toward implementing laws removing some restrictions on people carrying handguns. Yet only Kansas is doing so without requiring an individual to take a course, pay a fee, and put his personal information into a government database — perfect for facilitating surveillance — before being able to legally carry a handgun.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
A February 2012 memorandum of understanding between the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lays out a process pursuant to which the VA has been regularly sending to the FBI mental health information about VA patients. So reports Patrick Howley at the Daily Caller on Tuesday. The mental health information transferred is intended to aid the FBI in adding individuals to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) list of individuals restricted from owning or possessing guns.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
With the United States Supreme Court hearing oral arguments Wednesday in Horne v. Department of Agriculture — a case concerning the application of the US Constitution’s Fifth Amendment Takings Clause to raisin farmers, it seems an appropriate time to review some of the basics of American takings, or eminent domain, law.
The Horne case concerns a US raisins regulatory system created in 1940s and authorized by the Agriculture Marketing Agreement Act of 1937. The Horne family, which grows grapes to produce raisins in California, owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for failing to hand over a portion of its crop each year to the Department of Agriculture (USDA)-overseen Raisin Administrative Committee. The Horne case decision will very like have ramifications for similar government regulatory systems related to various other American agricultural products. Depending on what the court decides, the case’s effects could be even broader.
James Bovard delved into the workings of the Raisin Administrative Committee and similar government-created marketing boards in his book Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty. In a chapter appropriately titled “The Proliferation of Petty Dictatorships,” Bovard writes:
Under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, USDA appoints farmers to government marketing boards that impose “marketing orders.” These boards restrict the sale of specific fruits and vegetables and can severely punish farmers who sell more of their crop than the boards permit. USDA has granted vast discretionary power to these marketing boards.
For a short introduction to concepts in American takings law, below are introductory comments I presented in 2013 to Universidad Francisco Marroquín professors to kick off a discussion regarding property rights and related issues. In this presentation at the university’s Guatemala City campus, I provide a quick overview of some key American takings law concepts. The presentation starts with consideration of the respect for property rights demonstrated in the US Constitution and concludes with discussion of the Dolan v. City of Tigard US Supreme Court decision, a decision that will likely play an important role in the court’s consideration of the Horne case.
Watch the presentation here:
Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Speaking Monday on the Alan Colmes Show, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity Chairman Ron Paul discussed the danger the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) poses to peace.
Paul explains his reasoning for shutting down NATO in response to a query from Colmes:
Colmes: You also believe NATO should be shut down at this point, correct?
Paul: Yeah, NATO for me is one of those entangling alliances that our Founders suggested we not get involved in. And, you know, Robert Taft was from the Old Right, which was more libertarian. Under the circumstances following World War II, he advised us not to get into NATO because it would invite more problems. And I think NATO is part of the reason we go into Libya, into Syria, now in Ukraine. And that’s all under NATO, It’s really not checking in with the American people whether it’s a good idea or not. I think that NATO’s an entangling alliance that we would be better off without.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
Is fast track being fast tracked? George Zornick at the Nation today suggests that the fast track authority for President Barack Obama to enter the United States into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive, wide-scope international agreement, may soon be rushed through Congress without adequate opportunity for Congress members and the American people to consider the matter. This circumvention of regular process in Congress and of public scrutiny should not be a surprise given that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) support the granting of this presidential power that Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), a Ron Paul Institute Advisory Board member, calls “absolutely a threat on our Constitution, on our sovereignty.”
Read here Zornick’s article detailing the subversion of regular process, including through holding a Senate committee hearing on the fast track bill before the bill is even available to read, in order to obtain quick Senate approval of the fast track authority.
Michael McAuliff provides in the Huffington Post additional details regarding Senate chicanery that appeared suddenly today concerning the fast track legislation.
Continue reading at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.