Dear RLC Members,

What if I told you you could be involved in a judicial campaign that Tallahassee Democrat called one of the most hotly contested in state history? What if I said that the most liberal member of our Supreme Court told the Washington Post she was “outraged” by our effort?

Would you want to learn more?

We are excited to announce a series of informational meetings throughout Florida in April. We are inviting concerned citizens throughout the state to come and discuss one of the most energetic statewide campaigns this election cycle.

If you are interested in learning more and helping educate voters in your area, please join one of the five stops on our statewide tour so we can meet face to face and answer questions.

Set one of the following dates aside and we will send you the exact location soon.

Tallahassee, April 22, 1pm

Jacksonville, April 22, 7pm
Village Inn Diner
10140 San Jose Boulevard Jacksonville, FL 32257

Orlando, April 28, 10am
Tampa, April 28, 2:30pm
Broward, Date (May) TBD

We will be kicking off this tour by meeting patriots at a number of Tax Day Tea Party rallies throughout the Sunshine state, including Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Sarasota, West Palm Beach and Orlando.

For more information visit www.RestoreJustice2012.com.

For Liberty,
John Hallman
 

Jim waited to formally announce his campaign until he collected enough petitions to guarantee that his name would appear on the primary ballot in August. While collecting those petitions he got an earful from thousands of people who understand that our country is headed over a fiscal cliff. Congressman Crenshaw may be the nicest guy you would ever want to meet but, his vote to give Wall Street bankers $750 billion and his vote to raise the debt ceiling by $2.4 trillion are just two examples of his misguided acquiescence in the out-of-control spending and growth of government. People realize our country has a serious debt problem. He’s been part of the problem. Jim wants to go to Washington and be part of the solution.

For the next five months, Klauder will be talking about the need to tighten our belt and trim away at the bureaucracy. Ander has had multiple opportunities to vote to roll back spending and he has voted consistently against those efforts. People who want to know more about Jim Klauder or how they can help out in his campaign should check out his webpage:www.klauder4congress.com In the meantime, join Jim on March 13th, Tuesday morning.

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If you have official campaign news you want to share with the RLC, please contact us and let us know about it.

To be clear, what I mean is the decentralization of policy, letting our local towns and cities try new laws and policies in order to let the free market work, and show us the most efficient and acceptable policy per the market.  Better put, let the people show us which policy is better, and which implementation of it, the most effective.  Not to mention the added benefit of allowing local governments to act as testing grounds for new innovative ways to deliver that service that the people demand.

I needed a government service or institution that is governed at the local level, which the majority feels is essential, and it’s implementation follows free market principles, perfectly suited to the people it serves.  I finally discovered that perfect example, something I could showcase which embodies those attributes and can be the proud example of limited government on a grand scale while maintaining it’s small town charm.

The Answer is Simple: The Fire Department!

The Fire Departments across our country are the perfect example of local government, market solutions, catered to the need of the people rather than a blanket rule handed down from the federal government.  In large cities, the people pay the salaries of the firemen and employ full time career firemen and woman to ensure they have the fastest response times possible, and the equipment to reach them when in need.  Investment in technology and training to provide the very best in fire safety, prevention and rescue also doesn’t come cheap.  It’s because of that, large cities like New York, Boston and Chicago value their fire departments more than their rural counterparts in terms of budgets.

Through their votes and elected officials, the people voice their desire for the fire department which will provide them the level of service they feel can be prepared to respond to the task at hand given the environment.  For major cities, where someone 14 floors down can put your family at risk by falling asleep with the stove on, h

aving a highly trained and professional department of firemen ready to charge up those stairs and save you is important.  That training, courage and resolve is only achievable with proper funding and full time, experienced personnel, only achievable with higher taxes, and budgets.

In more rural areas, you’d be lucky to find a building which is taller than 3 stories, and most of those are grain elevators.  The people of these communities do not require the rigorous needs of a highly trained, funded fire department in comparison to large cities.  In most parts of the country, firemen and women are rarely paid and operate as volunteer associations to provide protection and assistance in emergency situations for their community.   These volunteer associations in turn cost far less to operate on smaller town budgets, making a perfectly suited policy, for the people, and the

Some fire departments will not even put out the fire unless you have paid your service fee for the year.  Last year a couple living in Obion County Tennessee had to learn this lesson the hard way when their mobile home caught fire.  After calling 911 and reporting the fire only to have to save their own belongings as the south Fulton fire department watched on, on the ready in case anyone was in harm’s way.  When a reluctant resident fails to pay their fee, these fire departments will act when life is at danger.

This kind of fee-for-service approaches to government teaches a valuable lesson of personal responsibility that is sorely missing in today’s’ society,  More importantly, if Obion County, or any other rural citizens want to ensure they are covered in the event of a fire, it is within their power to vote for higher county taxes in order to pay for that service.  Many of these fee based fire protection programs are incredibly affordable too, for $75.00 a year (21 cents a day), that couple could have been protected in their time of need.

Why does any of this matter?

Looking towards this model of providing government services, at variable levels is a perfectly American approach to government; it’s why our founding fathers were so adamant about State’s rights.  Ensuring that what might work for you may not necessarily work for me.  It’s the perfect Constitutional argument on how local decisions provide the best form of government for the people and by the people, If at any time the current situation isn’t working for a town, county, or state, they can organize and vote to change the way they are governed.

It’s the perfect example for how all the issues should be solved in today’s federal government.  I always knew a decentralized approach to government was the best form, but I never could find an example that so readily embodies the lessons and structure of this as does the Fire Departments across this country.  People will always find the best solution for them and their family, and their community.

Washington rarely has a perspective which can understand the wide ranging needs of the people of this country.

Most important issue we lose at when we implement federal policy as a blanket policy, we lose the ability to innovate and discover new methods on how to deliver, manage, or provide a service which the people are looking for.  When we allow the states to decide how best to provide for their people, we have unique labs across the country testing to see which one works the best.  The Free Market, allowed to spur on innovation and ingenuity will dramatically help craft and implement the best policy over time for all, and that’s not just my opinion, that’s our history.

So next time when someone rolls their eyes at the idea of empowering the people to find the best solution, whether it’s healthcare, or social issues, you can point to the best fire departments in the world and show them that we the people can determine how best to suit out needs, not Washington.

• Black, Bob (REP)
• Klauder, James R. (REP)
• Koniz, Gary L. (DEM)
• Pueschel, Deborah Katz (REP)

The candidates will also take part in a panel discussion.

We will be serving snacks and drinks from 6:00 to 6:30 and then will open the meeting.

Each candidate will be allowed an opening statement of five minutes. Then, three questions from the moderator will follow. Each candidate will have two minutes to give an answer to each question, and then a one minute response to the answers given by the other candidates. After this we will take questions from the audience for individual candidates who will have one minute to answer until the end of the meeting.

Please feel free to suggest questions that you would like all the candidates to answer.
We look forward to seeing you there.

When:
Tuesday, March 6, 2012, 6:00 PM

Where:
Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott – Jacksonville
4888 Lenoir Avenue, Jacksonville, FL

Unfortunately, the Obama administration, with the help of the leftist elite in the U.S.
Senate, the House of Representatives, and even some Federal judges are systematically
destroying our Constitution, our freedoms, and our country. It is not an accident; it is being
done with malice and design. Here are the facts about what has occurred in the three years
that Obama has been in office.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution has been violated by Congress passing the
Obama health care bill. Congress has no authority under that section or any other section of
the Constitution to enact legislation requiring the American people to purchase health care
insurance, or to provide free health care to illegal aliens. Yet, this among other things is what
has been done. I am confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule that it is unconstitutional;
yet, President Obama has repeatedly shown his disdain for the rulings of the Judicial Branch of
government.

Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution also gives Congress the sole legislative powers in
the federal government. Article 2 of the Constitution that establishes the Presidency and the
Executive Branch of government gives no such legislative powers to the President. In other
words, only Congress can make laws and the President and his cabinet appointees can only
enforce laws made by Congress; the President has no authority to make laws. Yet, that is
exactly what Obama is doing.

By misusing the power to issue Executive orders to enforce laws or take emergency
action if Congress is not in session the President is bypassing Congress and the Constitution to
implement his personal agenda on immigration, cap and trade, gun control, and in many other
areas. He actually brags about this in his taxpayer funded campaign speeches, and during the
State of the Union Address he stated that he plans to continue the practice if Congress doesn’t
do exactly what he demands.

In addition, ever since he took office Obama has continuously violated Article 2, Section
2 of the Constitution by making appoints to major positions in the Executive Branch of
government without the required Senate approval. I’m referring of course to the over 40 Czars
that the President has appointed. These appointments are in numerous areas from overseeing
the takeover of the automobile industry to regulating free speech on the internet. These Czars
are not under the control of the Congress, and are given massive budgets at taxpayer expense.
By the way, the very use of the term Czar violates Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution that
specifically forbids the U.S. government from bestowing titles of nobility on anyone.

Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution does give the President the right to make short
term appointments when the Senate is in recess. The important point here is that the
Constitution only empowers the Senate to declare when it is in recess. Obama recently showed
his disdain for that part of our governing document by making several high level appointments
when the Senate had not formally declared a recess. Obama claimed he has the right to decide
when the Senate is in recess. The purpose of these appointments was to put people in positions
of power that the Senate would not have approved. The reasons are already becoming clear
because the new appointees to the National Labor Relations Board are preparing to order
companies that are not unionized to turn over the private phone numbers and email addresses
of their employees to labor union organizers. This is a clear violation of the right of privacy of
these individuals.

Article 2, Section 2 also authorizes the President of the United States to sign treaties
with other countries; however, the Senate must ratify the treaties by a two thirds vote of those
Senators present and voting. Now Obama has decided that this Constitutional requirement
should not keep him from doing what he wants. Since the SOPA and PIPA bills were withdrawn
in Congress Obama is looking for a new way to take control of the Internet and limit freedom of
speech.

According to the U.S. Justice Foundation Obama is going to sign and enforce an
international treaty “which will give governments and special interest groups the power to shut
down websites, and terminate your access to the internet, without the due process of law.” It is
called the ACTA Treaty and Obama does not intend to send it to the Senate for ratification, but
instead will do it as a “sole Executive Agreement.”

There is nothing in the Constitution that allows such agreements although Federal
courts have allowed Presidents to enter into some international agreements that are minor in
nature. The ACTA agreement is not minor, but would allow websites to be shut down, such as
my blog site, at the whim of the President. I also suspect that Obama is planning to use the
same approach to enter into and enforce the United Nations “Small Arms Treaty” that would
virtually eliminate the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution that protects the rights of Americans
to keep and bear arms.

The state of the constitution is not good; in fact it is gravely ill. This article has just
scratched the surface and in my next post I will talk more about Obama’s all out assault on the
Bill of Rights. A good friend of mine recently said that this upcoming election is not about
personalities or even the economy. It is instead a referendum on the Constitution and whether
it and our American way of life are to survive. I concur with that statement.

Michael Connelly
mrobertc@hotmail.com
www.michaelconnelly.jigsy.com
www.constitution.jigsy.com

Tuesday, February 7th    6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott – Jacksonville
4888 Lenoir Ave
Jacksonville, FL 32216

Having received some of the best and toughest survival training in the world at the US Air Force Survival Instructor School, Fairchild AFB
near Spokane, WA, Class 71-02, Byron is one of a select few of former USAF SERE instructors who have designed and created from
start-up a successful survival school for civilians.

http://www.byronkernssurvival.com/

Mr. Kerns will lecture  on what basic equipment and skills civilians need to master in order to survive an extended natural or man-made disaster.
He will also provide information on the courses and individual instruction available at his school.

In addition, there will be vendors displaying the latest innovations in survival equipment available on the market.
We look forward to seeing you there.

When our founding fathers declared our independence from Great Britain in 1776 the
colonists were already in the middle of a bloody and costly war to secure their freedom. Once
the war was successfully concluded it was necessary to create a new nation with a form of
government that would not allow a single individual or group to establish another totalitarian
regime and steal the freedom of Americans.

It took years and one failed effort with the Articles of Confederation before the
founders settled on the Constitution of the United States that established a unique type of
government with three separate, but equal branches of branches. These are the executive
branch that includes an elected President and his cabinet appointees, the legislative branch
that consists of a Congress made up of two houses, the Senate and House of Representatives,
and the judicial branch that consists of the Supreme Court and any lower federal courts that
Congress might authorize.

A system of checks and balances was put into place to ensure that none of the three
branches would be able to dominate the others and establish a dictatorship. In addition, the
basic distrust of a powerful centralized government caused the framers of the Constitution to
adopt the Bill of Rights that protected the rights of both individual Americans and the various
states that formed the United States of America. The system has worked so well that our
country became the most prosperous and powerful nation in the world.

Yet, now, almost 250 years later, elements in all three branches of government are
conspiring to shred the Constitution and rob us of our God given rights. We have a rapidly
emerging dictatorship and prime examples of it can be found in what is occurring in the first
days of this New Year. As part of the balance of powers prescribed in the Constitution, the U.S.
Senate must approve Presidential appointments to major positions in the Executive Branch of
Government. The only exception is that during the times that the Senate is in recess the
President can make appointments without the approval of the Senate, but they are temporary
in nature.

However, on January 4, 2012, President Obama appointed three members to the
National Labor Relations Board and a new “Czar” to head the Consumer Protection Agency
without Senate approval despite the fact that the Senate was not in recess. This has created a
Constitutional crisis of epic proportions.

I refer to this as a Constitutional crisis because this is not the first such action Obama
has taken that has clearly violated not only the provisions of the Constitution, but also his oath
of office, and he obviously plans to continue ignoring both the legislative and judicial branches
of government. In fact, he actually brags about what he is doing while campaigning for
reelection at the expense of American taxpayers.

There is now no doubt that the current President of the United States considers himself
a de facto dictator who is so much smarter than the rest of us that he can ignore the
Constitution, the supreme law of our nation, and do whatever he wants. History has taught that
in order to establish an effective dictatorship there must be three decisive actions taken.
First, if the military in the country is patriotic and pro freedom, it must be marginalized
to minimize its ability to resist the imposition of tyranny. Right after the New Year, Obama
announced drastic cuts in the size and strength of our military forces across the board. He is claiming to have the authority to do this under the bill passed by Congress that created the so-called super committee that was to enact wide ranging spending cuts.

If it failed to do so there would be massive reductions of the defense budget. In previous
articles I pointed out that the very creation of this super committee was unconstitutional
and that its failure to act would cause the “doomsday scenario” to unfold for our military.
Unfortunately, not only are my predictions coming true, but Obama is not even waiting for the
automatic cuts to begin in 2013, he is unilaterally moving to destroy the military now.
Secondly, the citizens of any country to be subjugated must be disarmed in order to
diminish their ability to resist the imposition of a dictatorship. It is now clear, by virtue of
the ongoing investigation in Congress of “Operation Fast and Furious” that over 2500 semi
automatic weapons were sold to Mexican drug dealers on orders from the U.S. government not
for the purpose of entrapping the drug dealers, but so Obama could impose gun control laws on
U.S. citizens. He has now done so by Executive Order, bypassing Congress that had refused to
take the same action.

In addition, Obama and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton have pledged to sign the United
Nations Small Arms Treaty that specifically targets private gun ownership in the United States.
This treaty would essentially abolish the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution and make
private ownership of firearms illegal despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has twice
ruled that the right to keep and bear arms is a valid and individual right under the provisions of
the Constitution.

Of course, the Constitution requires that any treaty that is signed by a President must
be approved by two thirds of the Senate to be valid. The U.S. Supreme Court has also ruled
that no treaty can supersede the provisions of the Constitution, particularly those that deal
with individual rights. All of this would seem to render the treaty moot since two thirds of the
current Senate will not ratify it, and it clearly violates the provisions of the second amendment.
So why is Obama pushing for it? Simply put, he believes he can ignore the Senate and
the court, sign the treaty, and then allow the United Nations to begin enforcing it. If you believe
that he won’t try that, just look at what he has done in other areas.

The third goal of an effective dictatorship involves limiting the rights of the citizens
to have free speech and a free press. People who can’t communicate and learn the truth are
easier to control. Most of the main stream media in this country have already relinquished their
freedom of the press and are doing whatever Obama tells them to do. Those that oppose him
are under constant assault and Obama’s minions on the Federal Communications Commission
are looking for ways to shut down conservative talk radio and control internet content. This is
despite the fact that the Supreme Court has said that the FCC has no authority to regulate the
Internet. Once again, Obama has issued orders that the Supreme Court and the Constitution be
ignored.

Even more frightening is the fact that legislation pending in both houses of Congress
will effectively give Obama an Internet kill switch. It is being pushed in the Senate by the usual
leftists like Reid and Schumer, but in the House of Representatives it is some Republicans that
are pushing it. My next blog article will contain more information about these and other bills
pending in Congress.

The bottom line is, we are headed for a country that is no longer a Republic, but a
nation controlled entirely by a small group of elitists, and unless the American people wake up

soon it will be too late to stop it.
Michael Connelly
mrobertc@hotmail.com
www.michaelconnelly.jigsy.com
www.constitution.jigsy.com

This pie cost me about six dollars and fifty cents to make. Most restaurants assume a thirty percent food cost so you would expect to pay two dollars and seventy cents for a slice of this pie if it was cut into eight pieces. The problem is you that cannot find it at that price anywhere. What you are offered instead is a poor imitation of the reality that is chocolate pudding pie. A chiffon filling with artificial flavor that is more air than anything else, and topping made of whipped oil instead of cream. All this for about three dollars and fifty cents and that doesn’t include the coffee. The sad thing about it is that most people don’t realize that they are being served a cheap imitation. They like the way it tastes.

A silly thing to be writing about, chocolate pudding pie. But I submit to you that so much of what we are being served up today by our suppliers, our corporations, our media and our government is so pervasively artificial that we should be seriously considering what it might take to replace them with the genuine article. To begin with we would have to stop swallowing the stuff they are feeding us. Even if we often like the way it tastes.

I never really cared that much whether homosexuals were permitted to serve in the military. I figured this was just as much their country as mine and they’d be just as tenacious, and perhaps more so, defending it as anyone else, especially when you consider that in some countries homosexuality is punishable by death.

Barry Goldwater wrote that he didn’t care either. All he wanted to know was that the guy next to him in the foxhole could shoot straight. Ken Hamblin, the Black Avenger, wrote something similar about affirmative action; that he never cared what color the pilot was when he flew, he just wanted to know ‘did he kick ass in flight school.’ I’ve always felt that way and never really understood the problem.

Some claimed that it would create a sense of unease if military people knew that homosexual members were looking at them in the shower which seemed reasonable until I realized that I’d already been in open showers at YMCAs and health clubs where it was highly likely there were homosexuals anyway. So what was the big deal?

A number of years ago, one of the Lucian Truscotts, the fourth I think, wrote an article that appeared in The Providence Journal about his experiences in the Korean War when the men in his battalion thought one was homosexual. Truscott wrote of the cruel taunts heaped upon him but also, finally when he was killed, how they all wept. That’s what it takes sometimes to awaken people to their intolerances, I’m afraid. We forget all too quickly that we are all Children of a Creator and that none of us is more worthy of His love than another. We’re all capable of some cruel things and some wonderful examples of decency. At any rate, I’m glad that’s all over.

But there is a far more vexing question which has not been posed by either the conservatives nor the liberals in this matter. That question is, why do we have such an extensive military in the first place?

Article I, Section 8 of The Constitution empowers the Congress ‘To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; (and) To provide and maintain a Navy. Article II, Section 2 states ‘ The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;…’

The wording of The Constitution with regard to the navy is much more permanent than that for the army. I think this is no accident. A mere look at the map is enough to tell why.

Even today, we’re isolated from many of our trading partners. At that time, we were contiguous only to Canada; Spanish and French colonies lay to the west and south with Mexico, a long overland distance away, all with indistinct borders. We were just a short sail from many Caribbean and other New World nations but an ocean away from Europe.

We had to become a maritime nation and we needed to have a navy to protect our shipping. In fact, a lot of what it did in those early years was just that, as evidenced by the Barbary Coast Wars and the Quasi-War with France. Our shipping was being harassed and it also contributed to our War of 1812 with Britain. Shipping was vital to our survival! It still is.

We have five basic military services; Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard but we really need just two. The Marines are actually part of the Navy anyway; the Coast Guard a naval service. Aircraft carriers could many of the needs of an air force. That would leave only domestic ground defense to be provided which, of course, is where the militia come in which could also fill the remainder of the needs of an air force, which was part of the Army to begin with.

It’s also obvious that Founders wanted us to rely extensively on our various militias for defense. That was part of the purpose of the Second Amendment. So we really have little need of a standing army but like everything else governmental, the military has become a huge bureaucracy whose main interest is self-preservation.

Most military spending is unnecessary. Harry Browne once estimated that the entire defense budget could be covered with just $100 billion; later he lowered it to $50 billion. A stripped down federal military, especially the Army, with reliance on militias, run by the states, necessitates only a skeleton federal crew with fifty states as laboratories for developing the most efficient & effective models.

Anyone who has spent any time on a military base knows about the budget jokes; how at the beginning of the budget year there’s meat loaf for dinner and at the end, roast beef and lobsters. That’s how all bureaucracies work. They have to spend their allotment for the year so their officers can trek to Capitol Hill to request an increase for the next year to mourn how ‘woefully inadequate’ the current allowance is for their current mission, which, of course, always has to be expanded.

Whether it’s health education, welfare, environmental, law enforcement or military services, a bureaucrat is a bureaucrat is a bureaucrat. You will never hear a department or military Chief of Staff ask for a budgetary decrease. That has to be a sure ticket to a funeral for any government career.

Cyril N. Parkinson formulated his famous, humorous law, partly from observations of the military while in the British Civil Service. He noted how the number of personnel in the foreign service increased as the empire dissolved. An essence of Parkinson’s Law is that any bureaucrat wants subordinates, to magnify his own position; he doesn’t want competitors and he certainly never wants to resign.

I don’t know what was going through so many of our minds during those years when, unbeknownst to us, the Soviet Union was collapsing from within. We got snookered by the military and the CIA that kept up the alarms about Soviet capabilities. For me, I began to see the light about the military sometime during the 1980s, the Reagan years.

Our children were going to school and my wife became friendly with another woman whose husband was a career military man. She told my wife, one day, that they were anticipating that the next hot spot would be the Mideast.

At that, I said, whoa! Aren’t we simply fighting to end the communist threat to us? Isn’t that why we’ve had this huge military presence all these years? The answer, I came to realize was, of course it’s not. We’ve had this military presence to ensure the military’s survival.

It was then I realized that the military is just like any other government bureaucracy. Its first order of business is its own preservation. Karl Marx predicted the withering away of the state once the workers’ paradise came to pass but, the neither the state nor its bureaucracies, ever withers; no earthly paradise is possible. And so, today we find ourselves in imbroglios around the world.

That’s why the military discerned future problems in the Mideast. It needed a secondary bogeyman if the first one faltered and falter it did with the collapse of the eastern Europe Soviet satellites and finally the Soviet Union itself in 1991. And the fun continues.

The groundwork for overseas intervention that began with William McKinley, accelerated with Woodrow Wilson making the world safe for democracy and Franklin D. Roosevelt maneuvering us into World War II and the CIA’s unconstitutional foreign policy interventions that Robert Taft warned about, all have come to fruition. The military-industrial complex has been saved.

If tomorrow, somehow, peace descended over the entire arc from Morocco to Bengla Desh, the military would scramble and discover a new enemy du jour. You can count on it. It’s the truth about the military.

And as far as freedom goes, one of the greatest dangers to a free society and the world, is from soldiers sitting around with little to do. But don’t ask and don’t tell about it.

This article originally published in The Freedom Beam, November 7th, 2011 Dr. Roderick T. Beaman is an osteopathic family physician practicing in Jacksonville, Florida. Born in New York City, he attended New York University as an undergraduate. He is a recipient of a 2003 Ron Paul Liberty in Media Award. He has written a novel that he has given up hope of ever getting published and so has made it available for the asking through TheFreedomBeam@comcast.net.

The FHFA (Federal Housing Financial Authority) has instituted seventeen separate law suits in the state of New York on behalf of Fraudie Mac and Phoney Mae (that’s us, as both of these institutions are in receivership) against the seventeen major banks (trusts/securities) for the massive fraud that perpetrated the biggest ponzi scheme in the history of our nation that has flat lined our economy. Since the filing of these suits, the fifty attorney general investigations and settlements (ooops I mean forty-nine now, they ousted Sniederman from New York because he was too tough on the banks) has been halted with the major banks walking out of the settlement meetings. That has me very busy and quite frustrated on two counts. First, didn’t like the settlement terms as it would let the banks off the hook for their criminal and civil liability, leaving homeowners without legal recourse to pursue a remedy and a collective settlement amount of only twenty billion to be divided up among the fifty states leaving a mere four hundred million for each state in the hands of, in our case Pam Bondi. Once the fees and cost for this investigation, which has already taken over one year, are paid back, that doesn’t leave much for the folks and there is no specifics in the plan of how much or who will be the recipient of what is left. So maybe it’s a good thing the banks walked out of the settlement meetings. But is it? No, it is not because there have been no penalties imposed for their walking out and that clearly tells us all just exactly who is in charge, the banks and not the attorney generals. Pam Bondi either doesn’t have a clear understanding of the problem or she too is in bed with the banks as throughout this year-long investigation she has lead the disruption (along with four of her contemporaries) of the settlement stating boldly and loudly that the deadbeat homeowners should not be rewarded for their irresponsibility by not paying their mortgages. Part of the original deal was the majority of the attorney generals wanted to make the banks reduce the principal amount of the loans to current market value and reduce the interest rate to a fixed four percent on homesteaded property. Ms. Bondi was against that too and fired the two assistant attorneys’ general, June Clarkston and Teresa Edwards, because they were too aggressive when pursuing the banks and the companies aiding the fraud. This has lead to an investigation into their wrongful termination. More of your tax dollars at work.

You may remember HB1191 the Fair Foreclosure Bill that it was subsequently killed in the 2011 Florida legislative session. That’s the bill that would make the State of Florida a non-judical state leading to the abolition of our homestead exemption and leave homeowners without legal recourse to pursue the massive fraud and the threat of eviction in twenty-four hours, rather than the current seventy-two hour requirement. Passidomo (R), of Tampa, has reintroduced The Fair Foreclosure Act of 2012 to be taken up in January’s session. This is the third year she has presented this bill. We must stop it once again, however this time will be the most difficult as the bank lobbyists have been very busy bees stuffing our representative’s coffers with career bonuses and promises of more for their 2012 re-election campaigns . This is a non-partisan problem…surely you see if this bill passes it will strip Floridians of so many of their liberties. The elderly are already having a very difficult time making their property tax payments, as with the rest of the state with their unemployment rate is so high.

We, at RLCNEF are committed “restore” the peoples liberties, and take our country back. Conservatives stand for the rule of law, and as such we hold the position that no citizen shall be deprived of property except by that same rule of law. Accordingly, we also hold that sufficient laws already exist in the state of Florida. We must stay on careful watch and not allow any more of our liberties to be taken and I sincerely feel that is role is to combat the Unfair Foreclosure Act of 2012. I am working day and night on this ONE project. Please help me.

The seventeen lawsuits filed in New York on behalf of the people, is yet another smoke and mirrors game to allow the folks to think that finally something serious is being done to make the banks pay back the money they stole from this country. Surely it will end in yet another settlement with most of the language written in such legalese as to exonerate the banks of all their civil and criminal liabilities at a huge cost to taxpayers. Let’s consider the expense to file, maintain and bring to a conclusion seventeen lawsuits in New York. The J.P. Morgan complaint filed is two hundred, seventy-seven pages long. I know because I read it. Imagine how much that document alone cost us to prepare and file. It’s nice to see so many attorneys employed in this country while the remainders of the folks eke out a living day by day. Let’s not forget that Fraudie Mac and Phoney Mae engaged in the exact same illegal and fraudulent behavior as the folks they are suing (and continue to engage in as I write this) and that will certainly be raised during the course of these suits. There is already talk of banks filing suit against them. So it goes that Wall Street has begun the in-fighting between themselves, all pointing the finger at each other.

Now the trillion dollar question is: How is any of this helping the economy, the homeowners or the rest of the American people? This is just another attempt to divert the public from the simple and plain solution put all the bankers in handcuffs. All these suits filed to avoid the obvious conclusion that what they have done is immoral, illegal both criminally and civilly and arresting each and every one and freezing their assets, both on shore and off shore, would solve the problem. Then, require the principal reduction to all homestead property to five percent below the Net Market Value (NMV), leaving a five percent equity position in the home. This very simple solution would get the economy back on track as homeowners can make their payments, plus fix up the homes they are allowing to deteriorate due to fear of foreclosure. Lowes, Home Depot, all kinds of businesses would improve and so would the real estate sector. Home values would go up, or at least stop going down and would serve to get this country back on track again.

I am committed wholeheartedly to this cause and will stand with the millions of others who have been and continue to be affected by this tragedy. If you agree please sign the petition to kill this bill: http://signon.org/sign/do-not-support-the-florida?source=s.tw&r_by=26214

Rebekah Sharp is a member of the Executive Board of the Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida.