Great things are happening across America. The actions of a few brave and noble state legislators and state officers around the Republic may well demonstrate that the most important election in the nation may not be the run for the President of The United States. The most important upcoming elections for all Americans may be those for their state House of Representatives, State Senate, Attorney General and their Governor’s races. When this country was created the office of the President was intended to have a relatively minor influence on the citizens of each state. It appears that some legislators and state Attorney Generals are dusting off the Constitution and working to get their house in order.

In Oklahoma the state legislature has a Bill pending to re-assert their state sovereignty.  The short caption of the bill reads:

“Joint Resolution claiming sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over certain powers; serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates; and directing distribution.”

Essentially, Oklahoma has asserted that the federal government and those in Washington D.C. are no longer going to dictate the way they run their state education, industries, National Guard, state police and they are especially not going to run rough shod over their state legislature. Oklahoma has told Washington, enough is enough. GET OUT!

In Montana the Governor and the State Legislature are reasserting their sovereignty and telling the Director of Homeland Security they have no constitutional authority to force the National ID on its citizens.

In New Hampshire a group of legislators are diligently working to introduce sound money backed by gold and silver as a state currency.

In Nevada the State Legislature rules the Federal Reserve Corporation unconstitutional.

It is All About Sovereignty

When we look at the source of the problem, most every problem in America today stems from a failure to respect and understand sovereignty: national, state, local and individual. The national police state and (FBI, DEA, CIA, OSHA, Corp of Engineers, Homeland Security, IRS, Fish and Wildlife, EPA, Fusion Centers, etc., etc.) runs rough shod over the state police, local sheriff’s offices and citizens in each state. The dire problems in this country were created by unconstitutional, unconscionable actions of the U. S. Congress. These agencies undermine the liberties of all Americans, violate the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and undermine the sovereignty of each state. Take a look at a list of all Federal Agencies. You will not believe it (http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml ).

The financial problems created by having to feed this machine seem so complex and overwhelming that most Americans have developed a sense of hopelessness and despair. When it comes to dealing with issues such as the national debt, the growing federal bureaucracy and the national police state, the citizens and states have no viable avenue for redress. When citizens have more fear of the IRS and the federal government than of dying, we have a problem.

When it comes to protecting one citizen from another, the sheriff of each county is the legitimate constitutional protector of the rights and liberties of the citizens. Their offices are charged with both protecting the liberty of the citizens and prosecuting those who commit criminal acts against another citizen. Should the sheriffs’ office ever engage in violating the rights of its citizenry, the citizens have immediate recourse by calling a town meeting or replacing the sheriff at the next election. The sheriff is immediately answerable to those who entrust him with such power. This is the proper order of things.

With a Federal Police state or federal regulatory bureaucracy, there is no redress for the citizens of the state. Can one vote out the director of the US Army Corps of Engineers or the head of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington D.C.? Write your Congressman and see what kind of results you get. Additionally, the U.S. Congress and its agencies treat our states and city municipalities as low level extensions of Congress. They have forgotten that, THE STATES CREATED THE CONGRESS and gave them their limited powers. The national police and federal regulatory agencies routinely undermine the citizen’s inalienable right of self defense by placing limitations on gun ownership. The federal government has undermined the citizen’s right of freedom and life through the personal income tax and regulation of every area of one’s life or business. The average state citizen now works nearly 4 months of the year for the federal government. The sad irony is, we created the federal government to protect our liberty and privacy and now it is the federal government we need protection from. This is not how the Founders intended.

Debt, Taxes and Inflation

In order to pay for the federal behemoth, the U.S. Congress and Federal Reserve Corporation have saddled the American people with an unrecoverable $13 trillion of debt. Half of this debt was accumulated in the past 8 years. This is now expected to be repaid by our children and grandchildren. No generation has the right to pass on a debt to the next generation.

Unfortunately, the U.S. treasury is empty, we are taxed until we cannot be taxed anymore and the federal government has borrowed until it cannot borrow anymore. According to the former Controller General of the United States David Walker, the U.S. has another $50 trillion in social service, Medicare and Medicaid obligations coming due over the next 30 years. http://www.federalbud….

Walker says, the U.S. Government is already insolvent and operates only off of borrowed money. The income taxes collected are primarily paying the $1.5 billion a day interest payment. Assuredly, he states, at our present course the U.S. Government will cease to operate.

Privacy

Did you know that the federal government has passed legislation requiring every citizen to obtain a National Id Card? The little known legislation is known as the Real ID Act was passed into law by Congress in 2003 and began being implemented in May of 2008 ( http://www.realidstates.com/category/real-id-act/ ). Florida, my home state, implemented the program in January 2010. The national ID Card is a centralized federal government file database on every American. This legislation allows the director of the Department of Homeland Security to track all of your financial transactions (i.e. political affiliations, social clubs, service clubs, gun ownership, types of guns purchased, places traveled) health records, biometric data, blood type, DNA information and social security number and will have the ability to be directly connected to your ATM or Debit Card.

People often say that if you have nothing to hide why should you care?

First of all, it smacks of a modern version of the required papers required by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany and secondly the government was created to protect our privacy not invade it. Read a little on the Nazi police state for a brief history lesson. Also, I am uncomfortable knowing that my small children, for their entire life may have every doctor visit, everywhere they travel and everything they ever purchase collected, maintained and analyzed by the government official in a federal government database.

So with all of this, what can possibly be the good news?

The Solution

The good news is that our founding fathers anticipated all of this and they gave us the ability at any time to bring the house in order. When this Republic was founded, we referred to one another as Floridians, Alabamans, Georgians, and Virginians.

When referring to the states collectively it was states the “United States are” …

Today the federal government would have us to believe the “United States is” one large collectivist national state, run and operated out of Washington D. C.

This issue probably would not be resurrecting itself if it were not for Washington seeking to strip our liberties and God given rights from us, enslave us through taxation, burden our children with debts, and collapse the dollar we trade in until our entire nations wealth disappears through inflation. As a result, few leaders in Washington can be trusted. Our founding fathers repeatedly warned us to not trust those in power. We must follow Oklahoma’s lead, dust off the Constitution, re- assert our state sovereignty and turn to ourselves to preserve our liberties and our prosperity.

Our solution will be a long arduous battle that begins at the local level, then state level, one legislator at a time. Eventually we will have a legislature and governor willing to stand up to the federal leviathan. During the process they will be under tremendous pressure to abandon the course. Their careers will be threatened, if they own businesses they will be threatened with loss of business or contracts, they will be ridiculed by the media as anachronistic and the weight of their party will bear on each of them. There are trillions of dollars being spent at the federal trough and the pigs will not leave until they are starved out. This plan will take governors calling governors and legislators calling legislators. We must follow the Founders advice and the states must re-assert their sovereignty. The states must refuse to allow the US Government to continue to run roughshod over their legislatures. We must do as Oklahoma has done, tell them enough is enough.

We need to find, educate and elect officials who think deeply about the principles this county was founded upon. Leaders that understand that taking office is a burden not a popularity contest. We need leaders that do not allow themselves to become compromised. We need leaders with the courage of their convictions to tell those in Washington D.C. that our state is not going to take it anymore. As Oklahoma has said, enough is enough. We are here to take it back!

If you are committed to the cause of liberty and limited constitutional government please join or contribute to the Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida www.rlcnf.org.

Regards,
Will Pitts, Chairman

Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida

Florida Liberty Candidates

Here are some good candidates to support in Florida:

Charles Perniciaro, State Senate District 8
http://www.charlesperniciaro.com

Luis Melendez, State House District 16
http://www.electmelendez.com

Marcus Rivchin, State House District 117
http://www.marcusrivchin.com

Francisco Rodriguez, State House District 83
http://www.rodriguez2010.com

Nathan McDonell, State House District 26
http://www.nathanmcdonell.com

Roger Shealy, State House District 29
http://www.shealy2010.com

By Chaumont

In the Madisonian republic that the citizens of the several states have managed to sustain, above all else, including such abstractions as “the common good” and “general welfare” for example, stands the rule of law.  It is with strict adherence to and equal application of a supreme law of the land that we are able to live, at worst, relatively free and, at best, with ultimate liberty and maximum personal responsibility.  As Madison explains in Federalist Paper #57, the same laws that apply to the citizens also apply to the representatives.  No man–not the executive, nor the legislative– is above the law.  It is with this understanding then that we must allow ourselves to be guided when making judgments and decisions on our elected officials.

We must learn to set aside our own “special interests” when seeking out the best candidates to rule us.  Citizens of the modern states excel at disdain for the organized interests of business, for example, who employ professional lobbyists, but fail to draw the parallels between their own intentions and the intentions of these organized groups.  Each citizen who makes a judgment of a candidate based upon any issue that is personal to them commits the same offense against the Republic that the professional lobbyist does.  The only difference is that the professionals often do so with more money than the common citizen.  But, in principle, there is no difference.  Each is trying to influence the system based on their own personal values and ambitions.  As secondary considerations, this practice is not so harmful; however the primary qualification for office in a constitutional republic is this:  Will the candidate respect the limits place on his power by the Constitution?  If no, then the candidate must not serve, no matter what a voter may like about the candidate’s views on other issues.

Contrary to what so many people believe, and what the lobbyists hired by the special interests practice daily, the elected representatives do not serve us.  They serve the Republic.  When representatives serve the people, then by consequence they will serve the majority at the expense of the minority, the rich at the expense of the poor, the influential at the expense of the commoner.  This is the evil which we see today where the elected are divorced from the electorate.  We must elect moral men who will bound themselves with the chains of the Constitution, vote for no legislation that is not authorized by the Constitution, and represent the interests of the whole of their constituency in the interest of maintaining the republic.

Much of my message here to you has been a nice way of saying the following:  Nobody cares what you think.  Your opinion does not and should not matter.  Your influence must be defended against by every liberty-loving citizen of the states.  It MUST be this way.  We have a rule of law and a system of government designed, as its primary function, to protect me from you .  My motivation for electing a representative to government is to make sure they will keep you from forcing your values upon me, to keep you from stealing my property, to prevent you from forcing my children to march off to foreign lands to slaughter innocent citizens of another geo-political union.  I know you’re my enemy when I see you supporting issues like the Fair Tax, which is a different disguise of theft of my fortune.  When you support aggressive and pre-emptive war, I know you are willing to kill my children to further your agenda against the enemies you’ve made for yourself.  When you support a ban on gay marriage, I know you are telling me that you own the definition of marriage and, at any time, you can further clarify that definition to exclude me.

I must find a moral man who recognizes the threat you pose to me and my liberty, and do everything I can to put him between you and me to provide protection.  THAT is what this republican form of government and our Constitution is designed to facilitate.  Only candidates who run on this platform are fit to serve our Republic.  Stop being selfish and become self-interested.  Cease looking for ways to participate in the power-grab which has become modern-day politics.  Find it in yourself to be brave enough to give up the tendency to use the power of government to force others to think like you, act like you, and vote like you.  Instead, choose liberty for all to do as they please so long as they do not rob another of life, liberty, or property!  Be loyal, not to a flag or another man or a government; rather be loyal to the principle of liberty that this country was founded on!

By Chaumont

Only with a clear grasp of the meaning of enumerated powers can one begin to understand that the responsibilities and powers granted to the different branches of government are legal and anything outside the scope of those powers is illegal.  In the times of our founding fathers, standing armies were seen as a threat to liberty and were called to duty only for a specific purpose and for a specified time.  A specific mission was defined for which funds were appropriated, and no assumption was made that one individual could expand that mission or ignore the restrictions of the mission.  Listening to the mainstream media, Washington think-tanks, and beltway insiders, one might believe that a President is, at all times, in control of the military forces, military decisions, and has, at his sole discretion, the power to take the country to war with anyone at anytime.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  One must study the words carefully to insulate oneself from the propaganda machine that intends to change, usurp, and ignore the restrictions placed on government by the Constitution; further, one must read historical texts, such as the Federalist papers, to gain an understanding of original intent and of historical context which is so vital to properly draw one’s own conclusions.  In other words, read the documents, check your bias at the door, forget what you were told to believe in government schools, and think for yourself.

It is well founded in the words of the author of several of the Federalist Papers, those being long regarded as the detailed explanations behind the binding legal restrictions on governmental power in the Constitution, that the President is to 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.”  These exact words wound up as the actual text of the Constitution, and for these words to be penned by Alexander Hamilton, who history records as one of the stronger proponents of centralized government and of consolidation of executive power amongst the founding fathers, strongly suggests the tendency towards restricting the war-making powers of any one individual.  Quoting Hamilton from Federalist Paper #69:  “The President will have only the occasional command of such part of the militia of the nation as by legislative provision may be called into the actual service of the Union.”  Possibly, Hamilton was addressing concerns that the executive branch was being given despotic military powers, of which he may have been seen as a leading proponent of, for he defends the powers granted to the President by comparing them to those of the King of Great Britain as well as the governor of New York.  Quoting Hamilton again:  “The king of Great Britain and the governor of New York have at all times the entire command of all the militia within their several jurisdictions. In this article, therefore, the power of the President would be inferior to that of either the monarch or the governor.”  It is clear that not even the hawkish champion of executive power, Alexander Hamilton, intended for the President to permanency of military command or to have war-making power that so many people believe he has today.

It is clear:  the President assumes his responsibility of Commander-in-chief ONLY upon being called into service by the legislature.  An army must be raised, given a set mission, a formal declaration of war drafted, and the operation funded for a specified period of time by Congress.  Only after Congress has met its responsibility does the President gain any war powers whatsoever.  Caution must be guarded not to be fooled into thinking that interpretations can be made that actually give the President wider more sweeping powers than that which is clearly spelled out in the Constitution, nor should the citizens be obligated to battle by illegal legislation that abdicates Congress’ responsibility such as has been done by the War Powers Act and several War resolutions made in the past 50 years, for example.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida had a crowd of well over one hundred people for its first meeting at the Four Points by Sheraton.

Cal Heseman opened with the Patriot’s Pledge, then RLCNEF Chairman John Stevens recognized the guests and gave an overview of the RLCNEF, its mission, values and goals.

In light of the cancellation of Marco Rubio’s appearance, his campaign offered Representative Aaron Bean to be the surrogate speaker on behalf of Rubio. Bean gave a compelling overview of the US Senate race, state and national politics.

Following Bean’s remarks, RLCFL Chairman Will Pitts, was interviewed by Radio Host Doug Kosarek. The interview contained questions pertaining to how an RLC endorsed candidate for the US Senate race might stand on specific policy issues. Chairman Pitts’ remarks were educational, stimulating and enlightening.

At the conclusion of this interview, the audience members were able to ask questions of Chairman Pitts and Representative Bean.

After the forum, three new events coming up for the RLC were introduced. Savannah Poole gave the details for the Members Only Cocktail Party on March 19^th. Mike Durden and Cliff Johnson explained the importance of the upcoming RLCFL Lobby Days in Tallahassee on March 22^nd and 23^rd. Kristi Dunn gave an overview of the Leadership Institute classes for Liberty Activists that will take place at the Four Points by Sheraton on May 1^st and 2^nd.  Information on all three events can be found on the RLCNEF website.

Charlie Shephard spoke about his company Community Advisors, LLC, the sponsor for this month’s meeting.

Chairman Stevens wrapped up by announcing the next regular meeting on April 6th.  At the meeting, there will be a vote on the RLCNEF bylaw revisions, as well as elections to fill the positions of Vice Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer (and any other vacancies on the Board).

Some comments regarding the meeting:

“The meeting was great. I would have loved to hear more from Mr Pitts. He was very informative. I loved the format. At the same time, I liked that John interrupted in the interest of time. It showed that the RLC recognizes that our time is valuable. Over all, I give the meeting 2 thumbs up!” –Lesa Melaugh

“Outstanding format. Will Pitts is such a great communicator.” – Mike Austell

“Thought it was great.  Beautiful place, and I think it is a dynamite place to have your monthly meetings.  Thought, in spite of Rubio canceling, you got a pretty darned decent turn out.  I had a great time and really enjoyed doing the food table thing!  Many very, very nice people, and everyone seemed to enjoy the event.” – Pat McBride

For more information on any of these events please see the RLCNEF Calendar at www.rlcnf.org

Next Board meeting: March 31, 2010, Office of WG Pitts

Next Regular meeting: April 6, 2010, Four Points Sheraton (8520 Baymeadows Rd.)

Open Letter to Bob Smith, a leader in the St. John’s County Republican Executive committee that continues to attack and smear the RLC, without ever attempting to address any issues he may have head-on.

Bob,

I got a call from the Rubio campaign this morning stating that you sent them an email that said that we did not want Aaron Bean to come speak based on our newsletter. This is not the truth. We are resending the announcement. I was waiting to talk to Aaron myself, since this whole scheduling thing has been such a fiasco. Now that we have confirmed him, we have no problem promoting him. The RLC would have appreciated if you had confirmed with us, before passing on misinformation.

I have recently been told of numerous times that you have gone out of your way to attack and smear the RLC, specifically with people in the Tea Party and 912 groups. I am not sure why you find it necessary to continue these aggressive and non-productive attacks. However, you need to understand that not only do most of the people that you talk to in attempts to smear the RLC come back to us to find out if there is any cause for the absolute vitriol that you send towards the RLC, this allows us to prove to them what kind of people and organization we actually are. Often times the very people you tried to convince that the RLC was evil and working against the party, end up becoming very active within our organization, once they see and understand how untrue your perceptions and attacks really are.

I know that you have told people that the RLC was the “kiss of death” to the Dan Quiggle campaign, that we lack integrity, and so on. I have a statement from Dan Quiggle stating the exact opposite. The RLC is consistent in its beliefs and what it stands for. When you state these kinds of things with no proof it proves that you have a different agenda than advancing principles of conservatism within the Republican Party.

Even those within the Republican Executive Committee, such as Lenny Curry and Cindy Graves (copied on this email), have proven to be leaders, because they understand that we are all, for the most part, working towards a common goal. They do not find it necessary to attack the RLC and are actually happy, many times, to have us working with them side-by-side. Sometimes we disagree, but neither Lenny nor Cindy have ever tried to shut out the voice of dissent. Often each of them have taken the time to listen to other points of view and even explain their own, allowing us to reach an agreeable resolution. This proves that it is only when you shut out the voice of the people – when you choose unethical, unfair and wrong behavior, when you choose to attack, berate and smear other Republicans – that there are problems.

It is funny how the ONLY club or committee in Duval or St. Johns that has problems with the RLC is the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee. We are at nearly every GOP meeting in those two counties without any problems. We are being recruited to work on campaigns and people are flooding to our meetings, I get several emails a day from people asking for more information about the RLC.

So if you stop and examine this, the fact of the matter is that whenever there is a problem, the same leadership within the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee is involved. It is those people and their behavior, and not the RLC, that is the common denominator when problems arise at the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee meetings.

If Senator Thrasher sticks to his word (and I hope that he will), as he gave it to me, to John Stevens and to Will Pitts, that he believes we are working together for a common cause (as we are), that he wants to bring the party together and stop the unneeded attacks on others within the party, then you and the others in the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee will need to find a way to work with us. We are fighting for our country. We have the same goal. While we may disagree with how to get there, the constant attacks and attempts to smear the character of others, proves that it is never your intention to work with others and it is you and not the RLC that are attempting to tear the party apart.

I would point out, that the Tea Party and the 912 groups share the RLC’s vision and that all of these groups are growing. Many of these people are joining their local Republican Executive Committee in order to fight for principles. They share the RLC’s message. To continue to fight us on these issues is to fight what is a growing majority within the Republican Party.

You have yet to actually attempt to talk to us, about any of the issues that you are so vocal about with everyone else. On every public forum that you posted your hateful words regarding the RLC, I have posted my contact information. I have NOT caused problems, I have always voted Republican and I have worked hard on Republican Campaigns, as has nearly everyone else in the RLC.

You and the others in St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee leadership do not get to choose who is Republican. This is my party as much as it yours. I fight for the values that the GOP has always been for and I am disappointed when a candidate is chosen in the primary or is elected that I feel does not represent those values. This is the cry of the rank and file Republican today. And we want to use that passion to move our party back to those values once again. When people like you create road blocks to that cause, it not only drives a wedge into the party, it shuts out the voice of the people that the leadership within the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee are supposed to be representing.

You know very little about the RLC or the people that are within the organization. By never seeking to find out more or attempting to see what we could work together on, you, sir, are the one causing problems in the party.

If you are not the one trying to drive a wedge into the Republican Party by determining who is acceptable and who is not, then you would attempt to make ways for us to work with you, instead of you working against us. I will also add that is you and a handful of others in the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee that are spreading these untruths regarding the RLC. We are focused on the big picture, which is the goal of restoring our Republic and we are not spending our time trying to find ways to attack you or the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee. It is our wish to work together.

Prior to the attacks, character assassination and grievances, several attempts were made to reconcile with the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee and these attempts and acts of faith have been disregarded.

Consider this story, http://staugustine.com/stories/082508/news_news01_002.shtml

Jon Woodard and Becky Reichenberg agreed to cease attacks on the RLC on the condition that John Stevens and Wynona Mayer drop out of the race, which they did, in good faith, taking them at their word. Less than a year later those very people were involved in a grievance proceeding with one of the  people ( John Stevens) they had given their word to.

Now it is happening again with Precinct Committeeman Cliff Johnson being shut out of the vote for John Thrasher. He politely asked for the records, via certified mail, that would prove that he has missed three meetings, and was denied. He was denied entry at the vote and now has been ignored in his request for the records that should simply prove that he missed three meetings. This kind of behavior is not demonstrated on the part of the RLC, these are things happening at the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee and within their leadership.

Many of the rank and file  who hear this story and the lengths that it appears that the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee leadership has gone to, in order to shut out a certain group of people, are baffled and disenfranchised (with the party, not the RLC) to say the least. We do not want bad publicity, we do not want to keep fighting. But we believe the message of return to Constitutional principles is worth fighting for, and because of that, we are not going away.

So now I am asking you, as a leader within the community and the party, will you step up and be the one to make amends? Will you cease the attacks and admit that we have more in common than we do different? Will you allow us to work towards the same goal?

Most of the RLC feels it has done all it can do, we have put our contact information out there, along with an open invitation to sit down and talk these issues out. I hope that as a leader and fellow fighter and servant within the party you would take us up on that and stop with the senseless attacks.

I hope to hear from you soon, all my contact information is below.

Kristi Dunn

MsKristiDunn@gmail.com