The Constitution Under
Attack
PREFACE NOTE:
This is an important primer for understanding the bankrupt policies of "banksters"
and "BUSHwhackers" behind the
creation of every major war of the last century, the culture of corruption on
Capitol Hill, and the current unraveling of the economy these
humanoids have created.
Support the Constitutional
movement "from fascism to freedom".
- CR
"There are times when you have to
obey a call which is the highest of all,
i.e. the voice of conscience
even though such obedience may cost many
a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the
state to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life
itself.
For this obedience is the law of our being."
- Mahatma Gandhi
------------- article follows:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/printer_3907.shtml
Lights, Camera - Activism!
by William Norman Grigg
June 2, 2006
EXCERPT:
- "The process of discovery
brought something much more dangerous and frightening to my attention - now
I bring it to yours."
Set to debut in theaters in July, the
documentary America: From Freedom to Fascism recounts how
our government is abandoning the constitutional
framework of liberty.
Twelve-year-old Ricky Miller wasn't expecting
anything dramatic when he answered the door one Saturday morning. His father
Scotty Miller had just gotten into the shower. His sister Jennifer was just
waking up from a slumber party with some teenage friends. By all appearances, it
seemed like a typical early April morning in Virginia Beach.
This changed dramatically when Ricky opened the door and was confronted with 15
heavily armed agents from the Internal Revenue Service and state enforcement
agencies. One of them threw Ricky to the floor, stuck a gun in his face, and
ordered him to be quiet. The armed raiding party made its way upstairs, where it
barged into the bathroom and forced Scotty out of the shower. Another small
group burst in on Jennifer and her friends, who had yet to get dressed.
"There were four girls getting dressed, and these guys with guns were watching
us," Jennifer recalls on-camera in the new documentary America: From Freedom
to Fascism. "We tried to close the door but this guy blocked it with his
foot." As the terrified screams of his daughter and her friends could be heard
in the background, Scotty Miller, dressed only in a towel that was inadequate to
provide him modesty, provoked a near-lethal response from the raiders when he
reached toward his drawers to get a pair of underwear.
Scotty had known that there was some trouble down at "The Jewish Mother" in
Virginia Beach, one of two locations of a family-owned restaurant chain. His
wife Edy, who helped manage the restaurant, had called and frantically told him
to come quickly.
Armed IRS-led raiding parties had descended on both locations, seizing cash
registers, receipts, price lists, computers, calendars, telephones, Rolodexes -
anything that could be pried from the store and carried away. Terrified staff
were held at gunpoint while equally unnerved customers were forcibly evicted -
some of them literally having the utensils taken from their hands as they tried
to enjoy a meal.
For five months, John Colaprete, owner of the restaurant chain; the Miller
family; and the chain's other employees were forced "to do business out of a
shoebox," Colaprete relates on-camera in the film, while the feds held on to
their property and their reputations were ravaged in the press. The store had
lost as much as $20,000 on the day of the raid alone. The chain lost its liquor
license, along with much of its customer base. Neither Colaprete nor Miller
could figure out what, if anything, they had done to provoke a paramilitary raid
on a popular and growing small business.
Five months later, they had their answers. Deborah Shofner, a bookkeeper who had
been fired by the chain for embezzlement, had made false and malicious
accusations against its management to the feds. When the raids failed to produce
substantive evidence to corroborate Shofner's charges, the IRS returned the
restaurant's property the following August, without so much as a syllable of
apology.
By that time, however, "The Jewish Mother" had nearly been driven out of
business. Scotty Miller, who was shunned by his friends and traumatized by the
federal assault, had been hospitalized with clinical depression.
"A day doesn't go by that I don't wonder what harassment will occur next,"
Colaprete stated during his 1998 testimony before a Senate investigation of IRS
abuses. "I would like to know why this dark entity known as the IRS has come
into my life and refused to leave."
Origins of the "Dark Entity"
Colaprete's anguished complaint is echoed by thousands of other Americans
whose lives have been disrupted - or ruined - by the same agency. Where did that
"Dark Entity" come from? Why must we put up with it? How can we make it go away?
As Aaron Russo demonstrates in his riveting documentary - scheduled to be
released in theaters on July 28 - the IRS itself is just one appendage of the
"Dark Entity" that seized control over our nation in what could be called the
Revolution of 1913. [how the "FED"
has orchestrated big business collusion with big
government to create a massive "growth industry" (Big Brother) that requires the
"Big Lie" to become even bigger. - CR]
For three decades prior to making his new
documentary, Russo carved out a career of some distinction as a pop music
impresario and movie producer (see profile on page 17). In the early 1990s he
became concerned about political and social trends that he believed were
carrying our once-free nation toward tyranny. Further investigation led Russo to
conclude that our nation wasn't drifting toward tyranny, but rather being
propelled in that direction by a powerful but dimly seen group of elitists whose
handiwork includes the graduated income tax and the IRS. He made the
acquaintance of several sober and responsible people willing to risk
impoverishment or imprisonment on behalf of their belief that the income tax was
a fraud.
But Russo's film isn't just about the "tax protest" movement.
"I set out on a journey to make a film about whether or not there was a
law requiring Americans to pay an Income Tax ? or was this tax a fraud,"
Russo explains at the outset of the film. "The process of discovery
brought something much more dangerous and frightening to my attention - now I
bring it to yours."
"In 1913," he narrates, "America was a free country. Then a band
of powerful bankers achieved their fathers' and their great-grandfathers' goal.
America has never been the same. Soon the world will not be the same."
This was the year, 1913, in which three critical structural
changes - two of which are examined by Russo -
grievously undermined our republican form of government.
The first was creation of the Federal Reserve System, which Rep. Ron Paul
(R-Texas) describes on-screen as an agency created to
"counterfeit money."
The other two radical changes were the
imposition of the graduated income tax via the
16th Amendment to the Constitution, and the 17th
Amendment, which effectively destroyed the U.S. Senate as a body representing
the interests of the states.
.
Prior to 1913, money consisted of gold and silver, with paper currency serving
only as receipts for the same. In that year, however, Congress abdicated its
constitutional duty to "coin" money to the Federal Reserve, which arrogated to
itself the right to issue "fiat" currency - paper notes not backed by precious
metals, but rather by the "full faith and credit" of the federal government.
Since that time, Russo observes, the dollar has lost roughly 96 percent
of its purchasing power, as the Fed - which is owned by a
government-created-and-sustained private cartel of largely anonymous banking
interests - has relentlessly printed "money" to loan to the U.S. government, at
interest. [Money changers in the temple that
Christ rebuked, turning over their tables. -CR]
Big Business in Collusion with Big Government = Big
Brother Fascism
Although the term was not in use at the time of
its creation, the word "fascist"
perfectly describes the Federal Reserve System:
the Fed is a cartel of private banking interests
allied with the central government in a corrupt
and mutually enriching entente against the public interest,
backed by brute force.
The creation of the Fed was thus a key turning point in America's devolution
from freedom toward fascism.
From Fascism to Communism
Benito Mussolini, the founder of fascism, was a devout disciple of Karl
Marx, who devised a modified form of political collectivism called the
corporate state. The system that now
governs America bears a much stronger resemblance to Mussolini's corporatism
than the constitutional republic we inherited from our Founding Fathers.
"I find it really difficult to believe that so
many people consider our nation to be the most successful example of free market
capitalism," Russo commented in an
interview with The New American. "The foundation of our present economic
system is a Central Bank, and the graduated Income Tax - two of the planks of
the Communist Manifesto. So even though we're relatively prosperous, largely
because of debt, it's really dishonest to say that we're in any sense a
[free market] capitalist society."
The objective of communism, according to the Manifesto, can be
summarized in a single phrase: "The abolition of private property."
That this is the objective of those who exercise control over the executive
branch of the U.S. government under both Republican and Democrat administrations
can be seen in Russo's film.
Toward the beginning of From Freedom to Fascism, Russo gives time to
prominent leaders of what he identifies as the "Tax Honesty Movement," whose
members include former IRS investigators like Joe Banister and Sherry Jackson.
That movement is devoted to the idea that there is no specific statutory
requirement that individual American wage earners file a tax return.
Is there a specific law requiring Americans to file a return? To find the answer
to that question, Russo interviewed two strikingly different personalities on
camera. One was Rep. Paul; the other was former IRS Commissioner and General
Counsel Sheldon Cohen.
Statesman vs. Bureaucrat
"Is there a law requiring Americans to file a 1040?" Russo asked Rep.
Paul point-blank.
"Not explicitly," replied the congressman, who has studied the
question in depth. "But it's certainly implied.... I can't cite a law.
They think it's the law, and they have all the guns."
Russo posed the same question to Cohen, only to have Cohen lead him
through dense thickets of doublespeak.
"I believe that a man's labor is his private property," Russo
said.
"That's your view," Cohen said with a smirk, "but it's not
the law."
Contemplate that answer for a second. If your labor isn't your property,
to whom or what does it belong?
The obvious answer is that it belongs to "society," which is supposedly
represented by the entity that extracts, at gunpoint, as much of the proceeds of
your labor as it sees fit: the federal government.
How does this state of affairs differ in principle - not in consistent
practice - from Soviet communism?
"This is a waste of time," grouses Cohen as Russo politely presses
his question. "Whatever I say you won't believe." At another
point, when Russo highlights contradictions between IRS enforcement policies and
various Supreme Court rulings, Cohen plaintively protests: "You've caught
me unprepared."
Finally Cohen signals for the interview to end just before issuing what
Russo, who grew up as a Brooklyn-born Jewish kid in Long Island, identifies as a
threat spoken in Yiddish, an expression favored by gangsters that he translated
as: "Aaron, nothing can help you."
Oddly enough, Cohen - who may be the most knowledgeable person alive
where it comes to the tax code - did not cite Section 6012 of Title 26 of the
U.S. Code, which states: "Returns with respect to income taxes under
subtitle A [governing tax computations] shall be made by the
following: (1)(A) Every individual having for the taxable year gross income
which equals or exceeds the exemption amount." The penalty for violation
of Section 6012 can be found under Section 7203, which calls for up to a $25,000
fine and one year in prison for an individual "who willfully fails to pay
such estimated tax or tax, make such return, keep such records, or supply such
information."
It would be expected that a former IRS commissioner would be able to
cite those provisions on demand. Yet he finds himself confused and lost amid the
abstruse details of the Tax Code. How can we expect to do any better? Laws
protecting lives, property, and public order are clear and easily complied with.
The same cannot be said of the mare's nest of "laws" and precedents cited by the
IRS to justify seizing the product of our labor at gunpoint.
Had Cohen not granted the interview, Russo points out in the closing credits,
his film could not have been made. The interview itself is easily worth the
price of admission. Forced from his natural habitat - the murky ambiguity
favored by all corrupt governments - Cohen withers in the glare of candid
inquiry like a vampire who, losing a game of "musical coffins," finds himself
trapped in the pitiless advance of dawn's first light.
Americans by the millions need to see that interview. They need to look into
Cohen's eyes and see the clinical indifference with which he dismisses the
concept of private property, the absolute disregard he shows to the rule of law
and the concept of individual liberty. A face needs to be put on the
bureaucratic class that is choking our liberty, and Cohen's serves that
purpose very well.
Force and Fraud
As Russo documents, the IRS embodies Lenin's definition of dictatorship:
"Power without limit, resting directly on force, restrained by no laws,
absolutely unrestricted by rules." Illinois resident Whitey Harrell,
charged with evading federal income taxes, made a formal request for the
statutory authority under which he was required to pay, promising - as any
honest person would - to obey the law once it was clearly explained to him.
During a videotaped tax hearing, an IRS enforcement official named Agent Craner
replied: "I talked to my boss and he told me that my badge is my
authority." That non-responsive answer is a pretty suitable paraphrase
of Lenin's dictum.
New York Times reporter David Kay Johnston received a similar answer when
he posed the same question at an IRS press conference: "Why won't the IRS
answer the questions set forth in the petitions from the American people
regarding the statutory authority for collecting income taxes?"
Replied IRS functionary Terry Lemons: "The
government is answering the question, through our enforcement actions in the
courts."
Freedom cannot exist where "laws" are too
numerous to count, and too convoluted to be understood by intelligent people of
good will. Yes, the IRS can cite statutory
language to justify imposing and collecting income taxes, and prosecuting those
who don't comply. But here's where the idea that the existing system is based on
"law," in the American sense, breaks down: because of the volume, complexity,
and self-contradictory nature of the tax code, many honest people - independent
business owners in particular - are incapable of compliance. Taxpayers are
compelled to offer evidence against themselves, and any time the IRS chooses, it
can ruin Americans who have not committed any crimes against persons, property,
or public order.
Compounding this outrage is the fact that
income taxes are not used to pay the operating expenses of the federal
government - a fact discussed by several of the
experts interviewed by Russo. The 1983 Grace Commission reported that
100 percent of Income Tax revenues are used to pay
interest on the national debt - which is to say
that the IRS is in the business of collecting what mobsters call the "vig," or
extortionate interest, on behalf of the banking
syndicate that operates the Federal Reserve.
And this is made possible, Rep. Paul specifies
- and Russo repeatedly emphasizes - because Congress has abdicated its
constitutional responsibilities, and the electorate has permitted this to
happen.
The real solution, as Russo's film demonstrates, "is not to ignore or
defy bad and unjust laws that have been imposed on our nation by the forces that
have seized control of our political institutions," comments Alan
Scholl, Director of Mission and Campaigns for The John Birch Society. "We
gain nothing if freedom-loving people become embroiled in expensive legal
battles, or wind up in prison, rather than joining in an effort to restore
constitutional government. That process begins with raising public awareness of
the damage that's been done to our free institutions, and while our organization
doesn't agree with every element of Mr. Russo's film, it has tremendous
potential to rouse the American public from its lethal reverie."
Familiar Story, Told Well
Well-informed Americans will be familiar with much of the evidence Russo has
capably assembled:
- The operation of a secretive power elite, most visibly represented by the
Council on Foreign Relations, which seeks political and financial control of the
world;
- The key disclosures made by Georgetown historian Carroll Quigley, who had
access to the power elite's papers and secret records, as outlined in his book
Tragedy and Hope;
- The use of perpetual war to generate public debt, and constrict individual
liberties;
- The relationship between the banking cartel and corporatist trade pacts like
NAFTA, GATT, and CAFTA - and how illegal immigration is being used to advance
the consolidation of the Western Hemisphere into a European Union-style
mega-state, which means the loss of our national identity, our prosperity, and
eventually our liberty;
- The emergence of digital microchip technology portending the use of
implantable IDs.
Many readers of this magazine are familiar with this story. Tens of millions of
others, however, are not. Therein lies the tragedy - and the challenge.
Russo has made a tremendously informative and often entertaining movie. While
not without its flaws, it must be said that, examined as a whole, the film
defines the problem correctly. It also endorses the correct solution: organized,
principled, peaceful citizen activism to induce Congress to reassert its
constitutional authority on behalf of the sovereign people.
"Stop being good Democrats," Russo urges.
"Stop being good Republicans. Start
being good Americans."
In the film's final frames, Russo does invoke the concept of
"civil
disobedience" - which he defines to include boycotts, strikes, and passive
resistance of totalitarian impositions, where necessary and possible. But he
never loses sight of the fact that any worthwhile changes have to be made
through Congress as a result of conscientious citizen action.
BOTTOM LINE: Congress won't see the light until
they feel the heat. The public must "light a fire" under our Congressman for
them to "get it". 98% of them have been "bought off" by the perks of profit,
power, prestige and "pride" that they are right in destroying America in the
name of security, God or whatever the populace wants to hear that sounds good so
they look good and get reelected. -CR
See also the Solution: The Movement From
Fascism to Freedom
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