LibertyVoter.Org

With the Senate impeachment trial dominating headlines this week, it seems appropriate to look back on what Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul said about the 1998 impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton. At a press conference the week of the impeachment vote, Dr. Paul explained that his vote to impeach Clinton was because of Clinton waging military actions in the Mid-East. Through 1998, Clinton launched a series of attacks in the Mid-East that (coincidentally I am sure) just happened to coincide with major developments in the impeachment saga. Yet most Republicans refused to speak out against this abuse of presidential power. You can see Dr. Paul’s remarks here. Note that Dr. Paul warned that Clinton’s unconstitutional war-making could lead to terrorist attacks against the United States, so he was talking about blowback years before 9-11. [...]

Cato Institute Research Fellow Patrick Eddington recently filed several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to find out if the Federal Bureau of Investigation ever conducted surveillance of several organizations dealing with government policy, including my Campaign for Liberty. Based on the FBI’s response, Campaign for Liberty and other organizations, including the Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation, may have been subjected to FBI surveillance or other data collection. I say “may have been” because the FBI gave Mr. Eddington a “Glomar response” to his FOIA requests pertaining to these organizations. A Glomar response is where an agency says it can “neither confirm nor deny” involvement in a particular activity. Glomar was a salvage ship the Central Intelligence Agency used to recover a sunken Soviet submarine in the 1970s. In response to a FOIA request by Rolling Stone magazine, the CIA claimed that just confirming or denying the Glomar’s involvement in the salvage operation would somehow damage national security. A federal court agreed with the agency, giving federal bureaucrats, and even local police departments, a new way to avoid giving direct answers. The Glomar response means these organizations may have been, and may still be, subjected to federal surveillance. As Mr. Eddington [...]

Campaign for Liberty has joined a coalition of 19 organizations in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee requesting an investigation into whether the FBI conducted surveillance on us and other groups that oppose the surveillance state. You can help put pressure on Congress to stand up to the Deep State and defend the First Amendment by signing our Expose the Deep State petition to Congress. You can read the text of the letter here. [...]

Have you seen the news?  The FBI is spying on Campaign for Liberty! Now, I’m wondering if my own personal phone lines are tapped and emails being read by Peter Strzok-like agents who want to see our Liberty Movement DESTROYED. That’s why I’m counting on your EMERGENCY action today. With a showdown looming over PERMANENT reauthorization of the NSA’s domestic spying powers in March, I don’t think it’s any accident we’re being targeted by the Deep State. They know Campaign for Liberty and the patriots like you who support us are their biggest remaining obstacle to their dream of turning America into a full-blown surveillance state. They tell us it’s to “keep us safe,” and their power would never, ever be abused. The Deep State coup they’ve led against President Trump has exposed to many Americans what a blatant LIE this is. As I’ve pointed out time and again, if they’ll go after a sitting president, what’s to stop them from coming after you or me? The answer is nothing. That’s why I’m counting on you to please sign your EXPOSE THE DEEP STATE petition to Congress, DEMANDING they investigate FBI spying on Campaign for Liberty and any other domestic organization they’re targeting. You see, not long ago, Cato Institute [...]

The House is in session Monday through Friday. The big event of the week is the House vote to appoint managers for the impeachment trial in the Senate. The House may also consider legislation restricting the use of tax dollars for Iran, while the Senate may also take up a resolution forbidding war with Iran without a congressional declaration. The House will also consider H.J.Res. 76, which overturns a Department of Education regulation changing the rules governing disputes between student loan borrowers and institutions the students accuse of misrepresenting themselves. Supporters of the rule say it establishes a fair and transparent process for both parties, opponents say it makes it easier for bad actors to get away with fraud on students. The House will also consider H.R. 1230, which amends the Age Discrimination Act to allow “mixed motive” complaints. As the title suggests, these are cases where age discrimination formed part of a defendant’s motives for the actions that are the basis of the lawsuit. The House will also consider a number of bills under suspension, including: H.R. 4841—Requires the Dodd-Frank prudential banking regulators to testify before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking committee every year to update Congress on their performance [...]

President Trump’s decision earlier this month to assassinate Iran’s top military general on Iraqi soil – over the objection of the Iraqi government – has damaged the US relationship with its “ally” Iraq and set the region on the brink of war. Iran’s measured response – a few missiles fired on an Iraqi base after advance warning was given – is the only reason the US is not mired in another Middle East war. Trump said his decision to assassinate Gen. Qassim Soleimani was intended to prevent a war, not start a war. But no one in his right mind would think that killing another country’s top military leader would not leave that country annoyed, to say the least. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY) said the Trump Administration’s briefing to Congress on its evidence to back up claims that Soleimani was about to launch attacks against the US was among the worst briefings they’d ever attended. After initially claiming that Soleimani had to be taken out immediately because of “imminent” attacks he was launching against the US, Trump Administration officials including Secretary of State Pompeo and Defense Secretary Esper have been busy walking back those claims. Esper claimed over [...]

Happy New Year! Congress has returned! Because we did not have the opportunity to post a this week in Congress preview, we will do a wrap-up. The big event of the week was a resolution (H.Con.Res. 83) introduced under the War Powers Act disproving of military actions against Iran without Congressional approval. This seems like a good thing, but the findings of the bill parroted everyone of the war party’s claims against Iran—including that US actions against Iran are purely defensive even though we are the ones stationing troops and building military bases around Iran. Even worse, the bill contains loopholes allowing the President to take military action. For example this section authorizes force against Iran to: “defend United States allies and partners if authorized by Congress consistent with the requirements of the War Powers Resolution;” This seems reasonable but it does cover actions against Iran justified by claims they are threatening our allies in the Mid-East or their actions in Iraq pose a threat to US forces there which was the justifying for the assignation of a high ranking Iranian official last week. Still, the resolution does put Congress on record against another undeclared Mid-East war and is being reported in the media as a defeat [...]

Campaign for Liberty Chairman Ron Paul issued a statement regarding recent revelations that the FBI has potentially been spying on domestic organizations, including Campaign for Liberty. CATO Institute scholar Patrick Eddington submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, asking whether the bureau had ever conducted warrantless surveillance on a number of pro-civil liberties groups, including Campaign for Liberty. The FBI's response was that it could “neither confirm nor deny” that they have been spying on Campaign for Liberty. In Mr. Eddington's professional experience, such a denial from the government typically means the affirmative. Dr. Paul — “The idea that the FBI would target  Campaign for Liberty for surveillance should outrage every American. Our work to educate, train, and mobilize grassroots activists for the cause of limited government and individual liberty is precisely the type of activity the Founders were most interested in protecting when they added the First Amendment to the Constitution. “The FBI has so little regard for American’s constitutional rights that they refuse to even give a straight answer when asked if they are, or have ever, subjected Campaign of Liberty to any form of surveillance. “Campaign for Liberty will continue to work to pressure [...]

President Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told us the US had to assassinate Maj. Gen. Qassim Soleimani last week because he was planning “Imminent attacks” on US citizens. I don’t believe them. Why not? Because Trump and the neocons – like Pompeo – have been lying about Iran for the past three years in an effort to whip up enough support for a US attack. From the phony justification to get out of the Iran nuclear deal, to blaming Yemen on Iran, to blaming Iran for an attack on Saudi oil facilities, the US Administration has fed us a steady stream of lies for three years because they are obsessed with Iran. And before Trump’s obsession with attacking Iran, the past four US Administrations lied ceaselessly to bring about wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Serbia, Somalia, and the list goes on. At some point, when we’ve been lied to constantly and consistently for decades about a “threat” that we must “take out” with a military attack, there comes a time where we must assume they are lying until they provide rock solid, irrefutable proof. Thus far they have provided nothing. So I don’t believe them. President Trump has warned that [...]

Political correctness recently took a dangerous turn in the United Kingdom when the North Bristol National Health Service Trust announced that hospital patients who use offensive, racist, or sexist language will cease receiving medical care as soon as it is safe to end their treatment. The condition that treatment will not be withdrawn until doing so is safe seems to imply that no one will actually suffer from this policy. However, health-care providers have great discretion to determine when it is “safe” to withhold treatment. So, patients could be left with chronic pain or be denied certain procedures that could improve their health but are not necessary to make them “safe.” Patients accused of racism or sexism could also find themselves at the bottom of the NHS’s infamous “waiting lists,” unable to receive treatment until it truly is a matter of life and death. Since many people define racism and sexism as “anything I disagree with,” the new policy will no doubt lead to people being denied medical care for statements that most reasonable people would consider unobjectionable. This is not the first time NHS has withheld treatment because of an individual’s behavior. A couple years ago, another local health committee announced it [...]