Liberty Today April 2011

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Iran Targets Israel Liberty Today ® • Volume 1, No. 2 • April 2011 • Published Monthly • www.liberty-today.com • libertytoday@hotmail.com • 16 Pages

Mideast Turmoil Raises Threat to Existence of Israel

Radical Regime Fuels Revolution, Close to Having Nuclear Missiles

WASHINGTON — The President asked the U.N. for permission to go in against Libya but did not ask for the permission of Congress, and that’s a violation of the War Powers Act, two senators say. Sens.

Rand Paul and

Will Obama Face Challenge In 2012 Democrat Primary?

See SENATORS on Page 16

We Won’t Stop Until U.S. Border Secure Jan Brewer

Governor, Arizona

PHOENIX — The U.S. has a federal government — not a national government.

For the next

President Obama

Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON — The Rasmussen Poll of likely voters for April 6 showed President Obama with an approval rating of only 47 percent.

A total of 52 percent disapproved of his job performance, and only one

Evan Bayh

Joe Manchin

percent had no opinion.

The question is, with numbers like that, how long will the President be able to avoid a challenge in the Democratic primaries?

See IRAN on Page 5

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GOP Demanding Real Cuts See THREE DEMS on Page 6

GOP Wants Cuts Prior to Increasing U.S. National Debt

Photo by Associated Press

See WE DEMAND on Page 8

AP Photo

“The President does not have the power to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

— Sen. Barack Obama (2007)

WASHINGTON — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to target the State of Israel for destruction, at the same time that he works to build Iran’s nuclear capability and tests his ability to fire mediumrange missiles.

IRANIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad waves sign saying “Down with Is- Iran is the largrael” during celebration of 32nd anniversary of Islamic Revolution last month. est sponsor of state terrorism in Read interview the world and is with Israeli Prime Benjamin subject to a Unit- Minister Netanyahu Page 4 ed Nations arms embargo because of Ahmadinejad’s pursuit of a nuclear enrichment program and his refusal to allow international inspections.

Some analysts say Ahmadinejad seeks the ability to develop an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) device that could disable Israel or the United States. An EMP device is a nuclear bomb which is exploded above ground level and destroys all electrical power lines, circuits, computers, and many motors for tens, hundreds,

Photo by Associated Press

Obama Asks U.N. to Okay Libyan Strike, Not Congress

HOUSE SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER describes House Republican plans to cut federal spending and avoid a shutdown of the federal government.

WASHINGTON — With a government shutdown looming, conservative House Republicans continued to push for spending cuts.

House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan offered his Pathway to Prosperity Plan, which would cut $6 trillion in spending. The cuts would mostly be from the Obama administration’s planned increases. Ryan’s proposal still increases the national debt from $14 to $23 trillion over the next 10 years.

See CONSERVATIVES on Page 16

2 Liberty Today • April 2011

300 Years of Coastal Attacks Seeking Human Captives

Long History of Islamic Terror: 1 Million European Slaves Taken by Barbary Pirates Scholarly Work by Ohio State U. Prof Sheds New Light On Extent of Terror

COLUMBUS, OHIO — A study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before. The analysis is provided by a book by Robert Davis, professor of history at Ohio State University, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery A European slave girl in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy (Palgrave Macmillan).

Davis has calculated that between 1 million and 1.25 million European Christians were captured and forced to work in North Africa.

The Barbary Coast, which extends from Morocco through modern Libya, was home to a thriving mancatching industry. The great slaving capitals were Salé in Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli. For most of this period, European navies were too weak to put up more than token resistance.

The trans-Atlantic trade in blacks was strictly commercial, but for Arabs, memories of the Crusades and fury over expulsion from Spain in 1492 seem to have fueled a jihad-like Christian-stealing campaign. “It may have been this spur of vengeance, as opposed to the bland workings of the marketplace, that made the Islamic slavers so much more aggressive and initially (one might say) successful in their work than their Christian counterparts,” Prof. Davis wrote.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, more slaves were taken south across the Mediterranean than west across the Atlantic. Some were ransomed back to their families, some were put to hard labor in north Africa, and the unluckiest worked themselves to death as galley slaves.

Women were often paraded naked, auctioned off, and used as sex slaves.

What is most striking about Barbary slaving raids is their scale and reach. Pirates took most of their slaves from ships, but they also organized huge, amphibious assaults that practically depopulated parts of the Italian coast. Italy was the most popular target, partly because Sicily is only 125 miles from Tunis, but also because it did not have strong central rulers who could resist.

Large raiding parties were often unopposed. When pirates sacked Vieste in southern Italy in 1554, for

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He said It was written in their Qu’ran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every Muslim who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.

Report by Thomas Jefferson on his meeting with the Ambassador of Tripoli, March 1785

example, they took an astonishing 6,000 captives. Algerians took 7,000 slaves in the Bay of Naples in 1544, in a raid that drove the price of slaves so low it was said you could “swap a Christian for an onion.” Spain, too, suffered large-scale attacks. After a raid on Granada in 1566 netted 4,000 men, women, and children, it was said to be “raining Christians in Algiers.” For every large-scale raid of this kind, there would have been dozens of smaller ones.

The appearance of a large fleet could send the entire population inland, emptying coastal areas. In 1566, a party of 6,000 Turks and Corsairs sailed up the Adriatic and landed at Fracaville. The authorities could do nothing, and urged complete evacuation, leaving the Turks in control of over 500 square miles of abandoned villages all the way to Serracapriola.

When pirates appeared, people often fled the coast to the nearest town, but Prof. Davis explains why this was not always good strategy: Pirates returned time and again to pillage the same territory. In addition to a far larger number of smaller raids, the Calabrian coast suffered the following increasingly large-scale depredations in less than a 10-year period: 700 captured in a single raid in 1636, 1,000 in 1639, and 4,000 in 1644.

When they came ashore, Muslim corsairs made a point of desecrating churches. They often stole church bells, not just because the metal was valuable but also to silence the distinctive voice of Christianity.

Constant predation took a terrible toll. Women were easier to catch than men, and coastal areas could quickly lose their entire child-bearing population. Eventually, Italians gave up much of their coast. As Prof. Davis

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explains, by the end of the 17th century, “the Italian peninsula had by then been prey to the Barbary corsairs for two centuries or more, and its coastal populations had largely withdrawn into walled, hilltop villages or the larger towns like Rimini, abandoning miles of once populous shoreline to vagabonds and freebooters.”

Some Arab pirates were skilled blue-water sailors, and terrorized Christians 1,000 miles away. One spectacular raid all the way to Iceland in 1627 took nearly 400 captives. We think of Britain as a redoubtable sea power ever since the time of Drake, but throughout the 17th century, Arab pirates operated freely in British waters, even sailing up the Thames estuary to pick off prizes and raid coastal towns. In just three years, from 1606 to 1609, the British navy lost 466 British and Scottish merchant ships to Algerian corsairs.

Corsair vessels had two means of propulsion: galley slaves as well as sails. This meant they could row up to any becalmed sailing ship and attack at will. A good-sized merchantman might yield 20 or so sailors healthy enough to last a few years in the galleys, and passengers were usually good for a ransom. Noblemen and rich merchants were attractive prizes, as were Jews, who could usually scrape up a substantial ransom from co-religionists. High clerics were also valuable because the Vatican would usually pay ransom.

If the pirates were short on galley slaves, they might put some of their captives to work immediately, but prisoners usually went below hatches for the journey home. They were packed in, barely able to move in the filth, stench, and vermin, and many died before they reached port.

Once in North Africa, it was tradition to parade newly-captured Christians through the streets, so people could jeer at them, and children could pelt them with refuse. At the slave market, men were made to jump about to prove they were not lame, and buyers often wanted them stripped naked again to see if they were healthy. This was also to evaluate the sexual value of both men and women; white concubines had a high value. Whatever they did, in Tunis and Tripoli, slaves usually wore an iron ring around an ankle, and were hobbled with a chain that weighed 25 or 30 pounds.

Prof. Davis points out that there was no check of any kind on cruelty: “There was no countervailing force to protect the slave from his master’s violence: no local anti-cruelty laws, no benign public opinion, and rarely any effective pressure from foreign states.” Slaves were not just property, they were infidels, and deserved whatever suffering a master meted out. Prof. Davis notes that “all slaves who lived in the bagnos and survived to write of their experiences stressed the endemic cruelty and violence practiced there.”

Most slaves were held in inhumane conditions. Men were usually worked to death. Women were used as servants or as sex slaves. White women were especially prized and were often put on display and auctioned to the highest bidder.

A few young boys who were taken captive were able to survive into adulthood, but usually only if they were vicious enough to participate in the enslavement, abuse, and killing of their fellow Europeans.

Sources: Ohio State University Research and review by Thomas Jackson.

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Liberty Today • April 2011 3

America Disbanded Its Army and Navy in 1784

Barbary Pirates Shook U. S. Isolationism, Led to Creation of U. S. Navy, West Point Jefferson Opposed Paying Ransom to Monumental Evil Of Barbary States

For centuries, the tyrannical North Africa states of Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis epitomized the European view of “barbarians.” They constituted the Barbary States, or the Barbary pirates, who preyed on merchant ships and peaceful coastal cities. They captured thousands of ships and kidnapped over 1 million Europeans.

Thomas Jefferson In 1784, the new United States disbanded its navy. Not long afterwards, crews of two American merchant ships were captured, enslaved, and held for ransom. It was the equivalent of the Iran hostage crisis of 1979.

The United States met the challenge with a policy of isolationism, appeasement, and the payment of tribute to rulers of the Barbary States, as well as Morocco.

Thomas Jefferson had opposed the payment of tribute. When he became President, he took up the policy of “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”

The monumental evil of the Barbary Pirates was a factor leading to the reestablishment of the U.S. Navy and the founding of West Point, which was needed to train military officers. The Barbary Wars and especially the battle of Derna, led to the phrase “From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli” in The Marine Corps’ Hymn.

Gerard W. Gawalt

Library of Congress

WASHINGTON — Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. More than 200 years ago, the newly-established United States made its first attempt to fight an overseas battle to protect its private citizens by building an international coalition against an unconventional enemy.

Then the enemies were pirates and piracy. The focus of the United States and a proposed international coalition was the Barbary Pirates of North Africa.

Pirate ships and crews from the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and holding their crews for ransom provided the rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power.

Before the United States obtained its independence in the American Revolution, 1775-83, American merchant ships and sailors had been protected from the ravages of the North African pirates by the naval and diplomatic power of Great Britain.

British naval power and the tribute or subsidies Britain paid to the piratical states protected American vessels and crews. During the Revolution, the ships of the United States were protected by the 1778 alliance with France. After the United States won

Captured by Tripoli, the USS Philadelphia was boarded and destroyed by Capt. Stephen Decatur in an act of historic bravery.

“

The monumental evil of the Barbary Pirates was a factor leading to the reestablishment of the U.S. Navy and the founding of West Point. The Barbary Wars and especially the battle of Derna, led to the phrase ‘From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli’ in The Marine Corps’ Hymn.

its independence in the treaty of 1783, it had to protect its own commerce against dangers such as the Barbary pirates. As early as 1784, Congress followed the tradition of the European shipping powers and appropriated $80,000 as tribute to the Barbary states, directing its ministers in Europe, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, to begin negotiations with them.

Trouble began the next year, in July 1785, when Algerians captured two American ships and the dey of Algiers held their crews of 21 people for a ransom of nearly $60,000.

Thomas Jefferson, United States minister to France, opposed the payment of tribute, as he later testified in words that have a particular resonance today. In his autobiography, Jefferson wrote that in 1785 and 1786 he unsuccessfully “endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to habitual depredation from them. I accordingly prepared, and proposed to their ministers at Paris, for consultation with their governments, articles of a special confederation.” Jefferson argued that “The object of the convention shall be to compel the piratical States to perpetual peace.” Jefferson prepared a detailed plan for the interested states.

“Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden were favorably disposed to such an association,” but England and France refused to go along.

Paying the ransom would only lead to further demands, Jefferson argued in letters to future presidents John Adams, then America’s minister to Great Britain, and James Monroe, then a member of Congress.

As Jefferson wrote to Adams in a July 11, 1786, letter, “I acknowledge I very early thought it would be best to effect a peace thro’ the medium of war.” Paying tribute will merely invite more demands, and even if a coalition proves workable, the only solution is a strong navy that can reach the pirates.”

Jefferson argued in an August 18, 1786, letter to James Monroe: “The states must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them.

Jefferson’s plan for an international coalition foundered on the shoals of indifference and a belief that it was cheaper to pay the tribute than fight a war. The United States’s relations with the Barbary states continued to revolve around negotiations for ransom of American ships and

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sailors and the payment of annual tributes or gifts. Even though Secretary of State Jefferson declared to Thomas Barclay, American consul to Morocco, in a May 13, 1791, letter of instructions for a new treaty with Morocco that it is “lastly our determination to prefer war in all cases to tribute under any form, and to any people whatever,” the United States continued to negotiate for cash settlements. In 1795 alone, the United States was forced to pay nearly a million dollars in cash, naval stores, and a frigate to ransom 115 sailors from the dey of Algiers. Annual gifts were settled by treaty with Algiers, Morocco, Tunis, and Tripoli.

When Jefferson became president in 1801 he refused to accede to Tripoli’s demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual payment of $25,000. The pasha of Tripoli then declared war on the United States. Although as secretary of state he had opposed developing an American navy capable of anything more than coastal defense, President Jefferson dispatched a squadron of naval vessels to the Mediterranean.

As he declared in his first message to Congress: “To this state of general peace with which we have been blessed, one only exception exists.

Tripoli, the least considerable of the Barbary States, had come forward with demands unfounded either in right or in compact, and had permitted itself to denounce war, on our failure to comply before a given day.

The style of the demand admitted but one answer. I sent a small squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean.”

The American show of force quickly awed Tunis and Algiers into breaking their alliance with Tripoli. The humiliating loss of the frigate USS Philadelphia and the capture of her captain and crew in Tripoli in 1803, criticism from his political opponents, and even opposition within his own cabinet did not deter Jefferson from his chosen course during four years of war.

The aggressive action of Commodore Edward Preble (1803-4) forced Morocco out of the fight and his five bombardments of Tripoli restored some order to the Mediterranean.

However, it was not until 1805, when an American fleet under Commodore John Rogers and a land force raised by an American naval agent to the Barbary powers, Captain William Eaton, threatened to capture Tripoli

and install the brother of Tripoli’s pasha on the throne, that a treaty brought an end to the hostilities.

Jefferson was able to report in his sixth annual message to Congress in December 1806 that in addition to the successful completion of the Lewis and Clark expedition, “The states on the coast of Barbary seem generally disposed at present to respect our peace and friendship.”

HHH In May 1815, Commodore Decatur sailed his squadron of ten ships to the Mediterranean Sea to conduct the Second Barbary War, which put an end to the international practice of paying tribute to pirate states. Decatur was dispatched to Algiers to secure the release of American slaves, to obtain an end to tribute, and finally, to procure favorable prize agreements.

Capturing the Algerian fleet flagship Mashouda as well as the Algerian brig Estedio in route to Algeria, Decatur secured an amount of levying power with which to bargain with the Dey of Algiers. Upon arrival, Decatur exhibited an early use of gunboat diplomacy on behalf of American interests. A new treaty was agreed to within 48 hours of his arrival, confirming the success of his objectives.

After resolving the disputes in Algiers, Decatur sailed his squadron to Tunis and Tripoli to demand reimbursement for proceeds withheld by those governments in the War of 1812. In a similar fashion, Decatur received all of the demands he asked of them, and promptly sailed home victorious. For this campaign, he became known as “the Conqueror of the Barbary Pirates.”

The Battle Of Derna

The most famous event of the First Barbary War occurred in April and May of 1805 with the Battle of Derna. General William Eaton and First Lieutenant Presley O’Bannon led a force of eight Marines and 500 mercenaries from Alexandria, Egypt across the desert to the city of Derne, which they laid siege to.

Upon their victory, the American flag was raised. This marked the first time it had been done in victory on foreign soil.

4 Liberty Today • April 2011

An Interview with Netanyahu of Israel

JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, answered questions from his residence on You Tube on March 30, 2011. The interview was conducted by Dana Weiss. Here are highlights of that interview, which included questions from the audience: QUESTION: Keith from Washington, D.C., asked for your reaction to demonstrations and upheaval going on in the Middle East?

NETANYAHU: America, Israel, and the democratic world all want to see the triumph of democracy. This actually began not in Tunis, but in Teheran a year and a half ago when people stormed the streets because they had a fake election. They stole the election from them in Iran. So we all want to see people from Iran to Tunis have democracy, because democracy is a friend of peace.

But we’re all concerned that the democracy will be hijacked by radical regimes or militant Islamic regimes. This happened five years ago in Lebanon. In Lebanon, there was the Cedar Revolution. All these people wanted to see a liberal, open, tolerant Lebanon, and a million of them walked in the streets of Beirut.

But, five years later, we don’t have that kind of democracy in Lebanon.

We have a theocracy. We have Iran and Hezbullah controlling Lebanon. So, clearly, we want real democracy – we don’t want a militant theocracy – that’s the side we’re on.

If democracy triumphs, then it will be good for peace, and good for our security. If Iran and radical regimes triumph, it’ll be bad for our security and bad for your security too in the United States. We’d like to see everywhere, including in Syria, genuine reforms, genuine emergence of democracy.

The reason you have this extraordinary turbulence — this earthquake from Pakistan to Morocco, — is because the Arab peoples and the Iranians have had the 20th century skip them by.

Now 21st century technology, like the Internet and television, is telling them what they missed out on. And so they’re rebelling.

There’s only one place you noticed in this entire vast part of the globe – only one country in the heart of the Middle East — that has no tremors, no protests, and that’s Israel. It’s because we’re the only genuine democracy – the only one where we respect human rights.

In fact, it is the only country that respects the rights of Arab citizens.

Twenty percent of our population are Arabs, and they enjoy full civil rights in Israel. It’s the only place where Arabs and Muslims enjoy complete freedom and complete equality before the law.

There are Arab Knesset members in our parliament. There have been Arab ministers in the government.

There are Arab doctors, lawyers, judges – there’s an Arab judge on Israel’s supreme court. An Arab judge in a district court recently – just a week ago — sentenced the former Israeli president.

How many people know that?

This is a free country. This is the only place where Arabs have full rights under the law. Arab women have full rights. Around us in this vast expanse of darkness, Arabs have no rights. Their rights are trampled on. Women are treated as chattel.

They’re brutalized. They’re stoned for adultery. Gays are hanged. But Israel is a free country — for Arabs, Jews, and all of its citizens.

QUESTION: Students in Ohio asked if he was concerned with the possibility of violence in connection with the Third Intifada being promoted on Facebook for May 15?

NETANYAHU: Well, I hope that

“

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel

The greatest mission that we have is to prevent a militant Islamic regime from meeting up with nuclear weapons or from nuclear weapons meeting up with a militant Islamic regime. The first is called Iran. The second is called Pakistan or, more specifically, a Taliban takeover of Pakistan.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel

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the Palestinians will choose peace and not violence. I think that’s what they have to choose. It’s very unsettling to me that the Palestinian Authority, which is supposed to be the moderate element, is talking about a unity with Hamas, which is a terrorist organization supported by Iran that openly declares its goals to wipe out Israel and fires thousands of rockets on Israel’s cities. So I hope the Palestinian Authority will choose peace with Israel and not peace with Hamas. That’s the only real peace possible.

QUESTION: Paul, a Canadian living in Osaka said there is a lot of talk that since the collapse of the Soviet Union that Israel is not a strategic asset to the United States but rather a strategic liability. Is it?

NETANYAHU: My answer to Paul would be, are you kidding?

Look at this. Earth shaking everywhere, west of India right up to the Straits of Gibraltar. Everything is shaking and rocking and the only stable place, the only stable country, is this democracy Israel – a developed country, prosperous country. Everybody is equal under the law. It has a strong military because it has a strong society.

People call Israel an aircraft carrier. God, if you had a few more, I think you wouldn’t be in this trouble. I think that if there’s anything that represents both the values and interests of the United States and the free world, it’s this free country called Israel in the heart of the Middle East. God forbid what would happen if we weren’t here.

You’d have the whole Middle East collapse, just collapse in front of the radicals. I think many people in America understand it, probably better than most peoples elsewhere.

This is a common interest of all those who want to see democracy, stability, and progress in the Middle East.

QUESTION: “There are some people in the Obama administration who specifically say that Israel is currently the problem in the Middle East and is really affecting the American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. What do you say?”

NETANYAHU: I’m not sure it came from where you say, but if you look at this turmoil in Tunis, Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, and Tehran, why are people demonstrating? Are they saying: Oh, Israel is

the problem! We have to solve this problem of the Palestinians?

That’s not what they’re saying.

They’re saying, We want freedom, We want progress. Some of them are saying we want to see a free country in our own state like the one the Israelis have.

Israel is not the center of this crisis. We need to solve our conflict with the Palestinians for our own sake and for the sake of our Palestinian neighbors. But the reform of the Middle East, the turbulence of the Middle East, has got nothing to do with Israel.

It’s got to do with the very basic thing that I said before: The 20th century skipped by this vast part of the world, and 21st century technology is telling these people what they missed out on. They missed out on having a developed society like Israel, and they know it.

QUESTION: Ariel of Taiwan asked, “What do you say to your children about peace, about love, and about the universal belief that all are created equal?”

NETANYAHU: I tell them that these are the most basic elements of our beliefs. I read the Bible. One of my boys is Israel’s national Bible champion, No. 3 in the world. We read it in this room every Sabbath.

What does it say? It says that all men are created as children of God. That they all have a right to

live; that they have a right to their dreams, their aspirations.

This is a fundamental concept that was brought forth by the Jewish people in the Bible. It’s with us.

It’s expressed in the fact that in Israel there’s equality under the law for everybody. People don’t know that. They don’t know that there are Arabs, there are Muslims, there are Christians, there are Jews — everybody is equal under the law here.

QUESTION: “Tell us about one experience that changed the way

you view the world.”

NETANYAHU: Without doubt, the most powerful experience in my life was the fall of my older brother Jonathan, Yoni, in the Entebbe rescue mission. Basically, he was the leader of the commando force that set out to rescue Israelis who were taken by German and Arab terrorists and put in Uganda — Uganda under Idi Amin at the time. He died in the rescue, and that changed my life, steered it to its present course because Yoni fell in the battle against terrorism. Yoni never believed that the battle against terrorism was only military. He believed it was political and moral.

So I have been waging this political and moral battle against terrorism for the last 30 something years. I’m still doing it. I’m concerned with the greatest terror of all — nuclear terror.

I think the effect of that has been that when I go to a bereaved family in Israel, and I see a mother grieving for her son, I say, that’s my mother. Or I see a father grieving for his son, I say, that’s my father.

When I see a brother, I say, that’s me. And, as a result of that, I think carefully before I send our young men in harm’s way. I have to, often, but I think about it. I think it makes me a more responsible leader.

QUESTION: “If you could ask one question of a world leader, what would it be and to whom?”

NETANYAHU: I would ask the question to Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain in WWII. The question I would ask Churchill is: “Is there anything you could have done differently to persuade the world that they have to act forcibly in time against Nazism.” Because Churchill, even though he was a great leader, failed to persuade the great powers of the day to act in time against Nazism. I’d like to ask him that, and maybe his answer would be: No, there’s nothing you could do, because, ultimately, there’s what you call the slumber of democracies. Democracies sleep and they sort of have to be banged on their head until they wake up. I find that frustration now…

QUESTION: Regarding Iran?

NETANYAHU: For 15 years, I’ve been talking to the world about the danger of Iran arming itself with nuclear weapons— what nuclear terrorism we could have and how they can control the world’s oil supply.

They threaten my country with obliteration, but they’ll threaten many others. You try, and you try, and you try. So I want to ask Churchill. Maybe I can glean from him some idea how to do it better this time. I have to say that I regret the fact that he’s not going to answer me.

QUESTION: “What is the biggest problem facing the next generation and what should we do to solve it today?”

NETANYAHU: I just gave the answer. I just said that the greatest mission that we have is to prevent a militant Islamic regime from meeting up with nuclear weapons or from nuclear weapons meeting up with a militant Islamic regime.

The first is called Iran, the second is called Pakistan, or more specifically a Taliban takeover of Pakistan. Because if these radical regimes have nuclear weapons, they will not obey the rules that have been obeyed in the last almost seven decades. And they can threaten our world. So the first thing is to stop them from getting nuclear weapons. That’s mission No. 1, and mission No. 2 is to find a substitute for oil. That would make our planet safe and make our planet clean. These are the two great missions for our generation and the next one.

Liberty Today • April 2011 5

EMP Poses Major Threat to U.S., Israel

Congressman Launches Group To Combat Key Vulnerability

WASHINGTON — Congressman Trent Franks has launched the Congressional EMP Caucus and introduced H.R. 668, the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage (or SHIELD) Act. “The threat of an electromagnetic pulse weapon represents the single greatest asymmetric capability that could fall into the hands of America’s enemies. Should a nuclear weapon from a rogue state such as Iran be detonated in Rep. Franks Earth’s atmosphere at a sufficient height above the continental United States, the blast of electromagnetic energy could immediately cripple America’s electric power grid. Currently, the vast majority of the United States’ infrastructure is unsecured and exposed.

“According to some experts, just one properly placed EMP blast could disable so large a swath of American technology that between 70-90% of the United States’ population could become unsustainable.

“The danger posed by electromagnetic pulse weapons, as

A HIGH ALTITUDE NUCLEAR EXPLOSION might be visible for hundreds of miles but create no immediate fatalities. However, the Electromagnetic Pulse would essentially destroy all modern technology and leave most Americans with little hope for survival.

“

A single crude nuclear weapon, lofted by a primitive short-range missile, could generate an EMP that would destroy electronics and electric power across the entire continental United States, causing the collapse of the critical infrastructures — power, transportation, communications, banking and finance, food and water — that are vital to the existence of modern society and the survival of the American people. Iran, the chief sponsor of international terrorism, openly writes about eliminating the United States with an EMP attack.

” Iran Has Long Seen U. S. Vulnerability to EMP See CONGRESSMEN on Page 8

Continued from Page 1

or thousands of miles away, depending on the attitude that the device is detonated.

Ahmadinejad carried a sign saying, “Down with Israel” during celebrations last month in honor of the 32nd anniversary of the Iranian revolution of 1979.

Iran has long seen the vulnerability of the United States and Israel to an EMP attack, which could enable Iran to disable the entire country, leaving the population with no means of sustaining or defending itself.

Empact America, which studies the dangers of an EMP attack, has reported on Iran’s interest in EMP strategy and technology: • Using Nuclear Weapons without Killing Human Beings “Nuclear weapons and atomic power can be used to determine the outcome of a war...strategic information warfare ...without inflicting serious human damage, neutralizes strategic and information networks and leaves them idle...The Americans...are faced with serious ambiguities concerning this type of warfare...It must be said that the most important goal in destroying financial systems or any military, political, intelligence, or economic complex or organization is to damage that system in the shortest possible time.” (Iranian Journal 2001)

Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, Congressional EMP Commission

• Terrorist Use of EMP “Terrorist information warfare [includes] ...using the technology of directed energy weapons (DEW) or electromagnetic pulse (EMP).” (Iranian Journal 2001) • Disrupting Communications From an article entitled, Electronics to Determine Fate of Future Wars: “Once you confuse the enemy communications network you can also disrupt the work of the enemy command and decision making center. Even worse, today when you disable a country’s military high command through disruption of communications you will, in effect, disrupt all the affairs of that country....If the world’s industrial countries fail to devise effective ways to defend themselves against dangerous electronic assaults, then they will disintegrate within a few years.” (Iranian Journal 1998) • Delivering EMP without Accurate Missile Capability Iran successfully test-launched a Scud missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. Scud missiles are notoriously inaccurate but that is not a significant factor in an EMP attack, because the EMP pulse can radiate out for hundreds or thousands of miles, depending on the height of the explosion.

A ship-launched missile is necessary only if Iran wants to make a missile attack on some nation out-

• Medium-Range Missiles Iran has performed several flight-tests of their Shahab-3 medium-range missile, detonating it at apogee. Shahab-3 is mobile and could be fired from a freighter to make an EMP attack on the United States. Shahab-3’s range (750 miles) would permit an EMP attack launched from international waters, far outside U.S. territorial waters, while covering much of the United States.

• Iran’s Nuclear Capability Iran continues to develop the capability to make nuclear weapons, with widely varying estimates as to when they could build a nuclear weapon, ranging from imminently to within the next decade.

• Strategic Motives for EMP Attack EMP offers the “biggest bang for the buck” and could cause far more damage—and kill many more Americans in the long run— than an A-bomb exploded in a city.

Osama Bin Ladin and other terror leaders have called for “spectacular” attacks with WMD including nuclear weapons. An EMP attack would be most spectacular.

EMP attack is the only nuclear option where a single weapon could destroy the entire nation, and so give terrorism victory over civiAMERICAN FAMILIES are unprepared lization. side the Middle East.

The launch mode is so inaccurate as to be suitable only for EMP attack. Terrorists could launch a missile from a freighter off the coast of the United States to make an EMP attack, and so conceal Iranian sponsorship.

Al Qaeda reportedly has access to a fleet of freighters, perhaps 80, and other terrorist groups could acquire a freighter through apparently-legitimate front organizations.

for what an EMP attack would do to them.

Related Story on Page 10

6 Liberty Today • April 2011

Three Dems Who Could Challenge Obama President Obama

Continued from Page 1

The answer from a typical Democratic strategist is, “He can hold on to the Democratic nomination through 2012, and that’s for sure!”

Of course, challenging an incumbent President in his own party has always been difficult.

But in 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War, President Lyndon Johnson was challenged by anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy. In the March 12, 1968, New Hampshire primary, McCarthy received 42 percent of the vote against Johnson’s 49 percent. Four days later, Bobby Kennedy entered the race. Then, on March 31, Johnson surprised the nation when he announced he would not seek reelection.

Of course, Obama has a strong base in the Democratic Party, and he will undoubtedly have a campaign war chest of hundreds of millions of dollars.

But with high unemployment, high gasoline prices, and rising food prices, will his base hang tight?

Apparently so.

After allowing Obama to lead them over the cliff in one of the greatest election defeats in American history in 2010, the Democrats — like lemmings ­— seem poised to allow him to do it to them again in 2012. To break the spell, one of the handful of Democrats who are positioned to run would have to step forward.

Three who could — but probably won’t — run are: • Secretary of State Hillary Clinton • Former Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana • Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia Clinton actually beat Obama in the Democratic primaries in 2008.

The popular vote count was: 2008 Democratic Primaries Hillary Clinton 18,223,120 Barack Obama 18,011,877 Obama won on the strength of his victories is caucus states and on the votes of so-called Super Delegates, which included U.S. senators and congressmen, Democratic governors, and various Democratic party officials. They accounted for about 20 percent of the 4,233 delegates.

If Clinton were to run again, she could be expected to do very well in the popular vote, but it is unclear that she would be able to control the caucus states or capture the Super Delegates against a sitting President.

Bayh and Manchin seem philo-

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Former Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.)

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)

If union leaders feel Obama is unelectable, they could turn on the After allowing Obama to lead them over the cliff in President at any moment. If they one of the greatest election defeats in American hisdid that, the most likely alternative tory in 2010, the Democrats — like lemmings — seem would be Clinton, Bayh, or Manchin. poised to allow him to do it to them again in 2012.

All three profess they’re not interested in running next year, and all sophically positioned to run against tory of winning elections. Both are three support the President’s reelecObama, because of their appeal to “moderate” on social issues. tion. But a fresh face and a new start conservative Democrats and inde- The key to any successful chal- might be what the Democrats have pendents. lenge to Obama is probably orga- to have to avoid disaster in 2012.

Both have good looks and a his- nized labor.

— Woody Jenkins

“

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Why a New Newspaper in the Digital Age? The hype about the “Digital Age” can be misleading.

Consider these four facts:

• The average Republican voter in America is 58.

• The average donor to Republican candidates is 70+.

• The average donor to conservative causes is also 70+.

• The majority of them are not on the Internet. Only 26 percent of all Americans 65+ have Internet service.

Because of the 72 million baby boomers (born from 1946 to 1964), America’s population — and America’s conservatives — will be aging for the next 20 years!

The fact is, they could be scouring the millions of websites on the Internet and getting all the information they need about elected officials and causes, but very few of them are. They want a newspaper to hold in their hands that puts together in one place the information they need. But they haven’t had that newspaper... until now.

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801 G Street, N. W., Washington, DC 20001 Mail: P. O. Box 1, Central, LA 70739 • 225-261-5055 www.liberty-today.com Email: libertytoday@hotmail.com

Liberty Today • April 2011 7

Domestic Jobs, Domestic Energy, and Debt Reduction Act

Sen. Vitter, Rep. Bishop Push 3-D Act Cut U.S. Budget, Reduce Debt, Add New Jobs, Produce Energy

WASHINGTON — Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) have introduced the Domestic Jobs, Domestic Energy, and Deficit Reduction Act of 2011. Vitter said the goal of the 3-D Act would be to create more than 2 million jobs, $10 trillion in economic activity, and $2 trillion in federal tax receipts.

The 3-D act is intended to have a direct impact on America’s job, revenue, and energy challenges by: • Mandating OCS lease sales • Opening up ANWR • Requiring action on stalled onshore permits • Properly limiting time frame for environmental and judicial review • Blocking regulation of CO2 by administrative fiat • Creating an alternative energy trust fund.

Vitter said, “Yesterday, the President offered some vague platitudes, but no concrete plans to rein in rising gas

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) discusses energy issues with constituents in Louisiana.

“

America has more energy reserves than any other nation in the world, and it’s time to get the government out of the way so we can fuel our economy.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), co-author of 3-D Act

prices, even as they climb toward $4 per gallon. Today, we’re laying out a

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far different path.”

“The 3-D Act would unleash our

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vast domestic energy potential to create American jobs, help free us from our reliance on foreign oil, and begin to reduce our $14 trillion dollar national debt. Louisianians know how our domestic energy supplies can be a powerful job-creating force, and dozens of energy producers are willing and able to begin work quickly and safely to develop those untapped resources,” he said.

Bishop said, “Rising energy costs, unemployment and a $14 trillion dollar national debt are among the biggest challenges that our country is currently facing. This legislation uniquely addresses all three by allowing for the development of domestic resources, which in turn will create thousands of well-paying jobs and begin immediately paying down our $14 trillion dollar debt.”

He said, “There is no reason, given our abundant domestic resources, that we continue to rely on foreign and often unstable countries like Libya to meet our energy needs. This legislation seeks to shift the paradigm from energy reliance to energy independence.”

“America has more energy reserves than any other nation in the world, and it’s time to get the government out of the way so we can fuel our economy,” said U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint. “We can help create thousands of new jobs, spur economic growth and reduce the deficit without raising taxes. We simply need to cut through government bureaucracies that have stood in the way of our energy freedom. President Obama and Democrats need to stop appeasing the radical left with burdensome regulations that cripple our economy. This bill must be passed quickly so we can lower energy prices, grow our economy, and end our dependence on foreign countries for our nation’s energy needs.”

“Since taking office, the President has restricted our domestic supplies of oil and natural gas, championed failed cap-and-trade legislation, and allowed the EPA to begin imposing massive energy taxes through backdoor greenhouse gas regulations,” Sen. John Cornyn said. “This measure will take the boot off the neck of domestic energy producers and unlock our domestic energy potential.”

“Instead of announcing bold steps to fully develop America’s energy, President Obama set a long range energy goal without a realistic way to get there.

A great goal without a great strategy will be a great failure,” Sen. John Barrasso said. “Republicans have a better way forward that will ease the pain at the pump. Our bill will help America develop all of the above energy, create jobs and lower the deficit.”

“We hear a lot about green jobs, which can often mean another way of saying expensive government-subsidized jobs,” Sen. Orrin Hatch said. “Our bill gets government out of the way of the real jobs that produce domestic energy our consumers can afford. We’re talking about private jobs that not only reduce energy costs, but increase our energy security – jobs in Utah and across the nation that pay great salaries and generate huge revenues in royalties and taxes to our state and federal coffers. There is no quicker way to jumpstart our economy and reduce our budget deficit than to simply allow private industry to access our abundant, affordable energy sources.”

The bill’s 28 Senate cosponsors include: Sens. Kyl, Cornyn, DeMint, Barrasso, Inhofe, Lee, Rubio, Coburn, Hatch, Coats, Cochran, Crapo, Ensign, Enzi, Roberts, Risch, Shelby, Wicker, Sessions, Graham, Isakson, Johnson, Hutchison, Blunt, Johanns, Moran, Hoeven, and Boozman.

The 3-D Act is endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Tax Reform, National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Limited Government, and the Western Energy Alliance.

8 Liberty Today • April 2011

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer

We Demand U. S. Seal Mexican Border Continued from Page 1

four years, Arizona will continue to pursue a policy of “Renewed Federalism” — my fourth Cornerstone of Reform — that protects the State of Arizona and its citizens against an over-reaching federal government.

Never during our nearly 100 years of statehood has federal interference in Arizona’s affairs been more blatant than in 2010.

We must demand that the federal government: • Secure our international border • Overturn the 2010 health care reform and its unconstitutional mandates on states, employers, and citizens • And free local jurisdictions from unnecessary federal oversight of local elections.

On February 10, Attorney General Tom Horne and I filed suit against the federal government due to its constitutional failure to secure the border and protect Arizona citizens against the negative effects of illegal immigration.

With that filing, Arizona both answered the Obama administration’s lawsuit regarding SB1070

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

and submitted a counterclaim against the federal government.

Our message for the federal government is simple: Use federal resources to combat the cartels that are BREAKING federal law.

Don’t attack Arizona, which is helping to ENFORCE federal law.

We did not want this fight. We did not start this fight. But now that we’re in it, we will not rest until our border is secured. We’re fighting to be cut loose from unconstitutional — and unfunded — healthcare mandates. And we’re delighted that a Florida U.S. District Judge found that the individual mandate in Obamacare, which requires everyone to purchase federally-approved health care, is unprecedented and unconstitutional.

I knew that from the beginning.

I’ve been a leader in fighting these unconstitutional federal mandates — including federal Medicaid mandates — and I’ll continue to fight when the federal government tries to tell us they know what’s right for Arizonans.

The federal government has indicated it will be “FLEXIBLE” with us — that it will work with us.

I’m going to make sure that flexibility is REAL, and not just lip service.

I’m also going to make sure Arizona uses the opportunity to develop innovative solutions that prioritize the services our citizens value — and that we can afford.

That’s REAL health care reform!

We’ve lost the sense of which problems require national solutions and which are best handled at the local level. One way to help our local jurisdictions in their own growth and planning process is to free them from out-dated, unnecessary federal requirements.

The United States Supreme Court recently said local governments may petition to remove themselves from Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act — the federal pre-clearance process. Over 60 local jurisdictions in other states have done so — successfully.

Together with Secretary Ken Bennett and local jurisdictions in Arizona, we can reward those who have accomplished the mission of the Voting Rights Act. We can allow them to finally end the unnecessary, expensive, and burdensome federal Justice Department oversight of Arizona elections.

Let me close by thanking you for holding fast to the ideals that ensure our future. May God bless you and your families, and our Great State of Arizona. And may God always bless and protect the United States of America!

Tony Perkins • Family Research Council

What Is Real Cost of Planned Parenthood?

WASHINGTON — The combination of Live Action’s undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood employees conspiring with sex traffickers and a new conservative majority in Congress adds up to trouble for Planned Parenthood.

Following the lead of veteran Congressman Mike Pence (RInd.), the House took a historic vote that would make organizations like Planned Parenthood choose between receiving federal Title X funds for so-called “family planning” and performing abortions. But Planned Parenthood and their allies on the Left, fearing an end to the federal gravy train on which they have become dependent, are fighting back.

Planned Parenthood’s political arm reportedly is spending a small fortune on political ads and a PR campaign. And Planned Parenthood is not alone. Groups on the Left like the Sierra Club, MoveOn. org, Media Matters, People for the American Way, Service Employees International Union, and others have closed ranks and come to the abortion giant’s defense.

One of the apparent coordinated talking points is that the Republicans are pursing a fiscal policy that is penny wise and pound foolish, because the elimination of $75 million plus in taxpayer dollars in family planning to Planned Parenthood will ultimately cost taxpayers $1.2 billion for costs related to unplanned pregnancies and births.

Does Planned Parenthood’s socalled family planning really save taxpayers money or does the nation’s largest abortion provider actually drive up the cost to taxpayers?

Consider the connection between contraception and abor-

Tony Perkins

tion. It might surprise some, but it would not surprise Malcolm Potts, the former Medical Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Back in 1979 Potts said, “As people turn to contraception, there will be a rise, not a fall, in the abortion rate.”

Earlier this year, the medical journal “Contraception” published a study, “Trends in the use of contraceptive methods and voluntary interruption of pregnancy in the Spanish population during 1997– 2007.” The researchers noted that from 1997 to 2007, “the overall use of contraceptive methods increased from 49.1 percent to 79.9 percent.” During this same period, “The elective abortion rate increased from 5.52 to 11.49 per 1,000 women.”

Although the article states, “The factors responsible for the increased rate of elective abortion need further investigation,” the relationship between increased contraception and increased abortion seems apparent.

But the connection between Planned Parenthood’s so-called family planning and an increase in abortion is not the only manner in which the abortion giant is running up the taxpayer tab. A 2005 study from George Mason University suggests that as the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood is costing taxpayer billions of dollars a year by fueling the sexually transmitted disease pandemic.

According to researchers Jona-

than Klick and Thomas Stratmann, who examined over four decades of data related to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), there is a statistically verifiable link between legalized abortion and the rise in STDs. Klick and Stratmann make the argument that sexual behavior responds to economic incentives. In other words, as the laws and economies of scale, along with government subsidies, made abortion more economically enticing, an increase in risky sexual behavior followed and with it STDs. How much is this increase costing us? The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 19 million new STDs occur each year, almost half of them among young people ages 15 to 24. The estimated price tag is $15 billion dollars for healthcare costs alone!

Is Planned Parenthood solely responsible for the STD pandemic?

No. But as the nation’s largest abortion provider, having performed more than 5.3 million abortions over the course of its history, they have led the way and are costing Americans more than we realize.

Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council.

national security.

“In an effort to proactively address this blind spot concerning the danger of EMP, I have introduced H.R. 668, the SHIELD Act, which would secure the most critical components of America’s electrical infrastructure against the threat posed by a potentially catastrophic electromagnetic pulse.”

Congressman Franks is serving his fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives and is a member

of the Judiciary Committee, where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and a member of the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law. He is also a member of the Armed Services Committee, where he serves on the Strategic Forces Subcommittee and the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.

For information, go to www.empactamerica.org

Congressmen Urged to Join EMP Caucus Continued from Page 5

well as naturally occurring electromagnetic pulses, has received increased attention over recent years from organizations including NASA, the National Association of Scientists, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The Congressional EMP Caucus is a bipartisan effort to bring muchneeded Congressional attention to what has amounted, to this point, to a considerable blind spot in our

Liberty Today • April 2011 9

Five Republicans to Watch for President

Rep. Michele Bachmann

Speaker Newt Gingrich

Woody Jenkins

Editor, Liberty Today

WASHINGTON — With the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire Republican Primary nine months away, the Republican nomination appears very much up for grabs with no clear front-runner.

President Barack Obama appears vulnerable, but it is still unclear who could both win the nomination and defeat Obama.

Here’s the latest buzz on the race for the GOP nomination: • Former Gov. Mitt Romney has some momentum coming out of the 2008 race. He spent $110 million in that race for the nomination, including $45 million of his own money.

He ran 2nd to Sen. John McCain in the New Hampshire primary and beat McCain solidly in Michigan.

Then McCain won South Carolina and Florida. McCain sealed the nomination in the Super Tuesday primaries of Feb. 5, 2008, and Romney withdrew shortly thereafter.

Heading toward 2012, Romney looks strong, especially in New Hampshire. He will face continued questions about changes of position on issues and the Massachusetts health care law.

• Former Gov. Mike Huckabee is the sentimental favorite of many Republican voters. He won the firstin-the-nation Iowa caucuses in 2008 but fell behind in New Hampshire, Michigan, and Super Tuesday. He has maintained a fairly high profile since then because of his weekly Fox News program. In the polls, he fares well among Republican primary voters, who give him high favorable approval ratings. Some pundits insist that Huckabee won’t run for President in 2012, and his candidacy remains uncertain.

• Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appears likely to run for the nomination. He has contacts nationwide, solid credentials, and good name-recognition. He resigned his Speakership after losses in the 1998 elections. Since then he has been a successful author and consultant. In March, the former Speaker formed an exploratory committee. He appears to have wide support in all parts of the country but faces the challenge of sparking his avowed supporters into action.

• Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, although still relatively unknown nationwide, was the top money-raiser in the country during the 1st quarter of 2011. Considering her lack of name-recognition, she is already doing well in the polls.

Three Tea Party-oriented candidates have considered running — Sen. Jim DeMint, former Gov. Sarah Palin, and Congressman Mike Pence. If none of those three run,

Gov. Mike Huckabee

Gov. Mitt Romney

Five Potential Candidates Their Strengths and Weaknesses MICHELE BACHMANN

STRENGTHS: A solid conservative, quick on her feet, intelligent, only Tea Party-affiliated candidate, raised more money in 1st Quarter than any other candidate, loyal following, a smart trial lawyer who won’t lose a debate. WEAKNESSES: The left is most afraid of a conservative woman and will do anything to demonize her. She must prevent the left from defining her before she establishes herself with voters nationwide.

STRENGTHS: High name recognition, lots of experience, a known commodity, strong intellect, friends and contacts in every part of the country. WEAKNESSES: Sometimes speaks in academic terms and can appear professorial. Conservatives want him to break away from the establishment and shake things up more.

STRENGTHS: Executive experience, developed a strong following during 2008, has stayed high profile through Fox News show, nationwide organization, high positives, strong appeal to Christians. WEAKNESSES: He walks a fine line. People like him but may see him more as a pastor or a friend than a President. He needs to be seen as stronger to get their votes.

STRENGTHS: Proven executive, looks Presidential, good organization from 2008, polished, capable, has the money.

WEAKNESSES: People see him as a potential President but so far he hasn’t really connected with ordinary voters. He takes a conservative stand on issues but conservative voters are not yet sure he would govern from the right.

STRENGTHS: Proven executive, strong-willed, no nonsense, charismatic, articulate, extensive contacts nationwide and worldwide, has guts. WEAKNESSES: Conservatives love what he is saying, but they didn’t know he was a conservative.

Lack of governmental experience hurts. The media, including some on Fox News, want to marginalize him, but he won’t let that happen. A real wild card.

NEWT GINGRICH

MIKE HUCKABEE

MITT ROMNEY

DONALD TRUMP

The Latest Poll Numbers

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll ending 4/4/11 Among Republican primary voters:

Mitt Romney Donald Trump Mike Huckabee Newt Gingrich Sarah Palin Tim Pawlenty Michele Bachmann Rick Santorum Haley Barbour

21% 17% 17% 11% 10% 6% 5% 3% 1%

Without Trump, Palin, Huckabee, or Santorum: Mitt Romney 40% Newt Gingrich 20% Tim Pawlenty 12% Michele Bachmann 11% Haley Barbour 3% Note: Some of the candidates

are still unknown nationwide.

Donald Trump

Bachmann will be heir apparent to Tea Party support nationwide.

She is a staunch conservative and articulate spokesman for fiscal responsibility and family values. Although Bachmann represents Minnesota in Congress, she is a native of Iowa and could be a force in the Iowa caucuses. She has the intellect and speaking ability to stand above the crowd. An articulate conservative woman nominee for President is the left’s worst nightmare, especially against Obama. So Bachmann will have to survive the endless attacks of the liberal media.

• Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, also of Minnesota, has been viewed as a model of the new brand of upcoming Republican governors who can win and stay elected in a Blue State. He appears to be committed to the race and is already showing up in the polls, despite the lack of national name-recognition.

• Perhaps the most intriguing potential candidate is Donald Trump, a billionaire who has never run for public office. Trump shocked political pundits by drawing 17 percent of the vote in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this week.

Media critics have been busy belittling his possible candidacy while Trump has been busy firing up the grassroots with his provocative statements on a wide range of topics from China to Muslim extremism to the Obama birth certificate issue.

Like Romney, Trump can self-fund a campaign.

One of the challenges for a charismatic and outspoken individual like Trump is always to think before you speak. So far, he hasn’t made a misstep. There is a certain parallel to Ross Perot, but Perot didn’t have the intellect of Trump and he wasn’t a conservative. The rise or fall of Donald Trump in this election may depend on whether GOP voters conclude that he is indeed a reliable conservative who will do what he says.

• Former Sen. Rick Santorem is a good man out there trying to start a prairie fire. Right now, he needs something to spark his possible candidacy.

• Herman Cain is the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and a talk show host. He tells it like it is.

If he runs, he will build a host of admirers and supporters.

• Gov. Haley Barbour has done a good job as Governor of Mississippi and was a good RNC chairman. Right now, he lacks the issue or the natural constituency to take him to the top tier of candidates.

It’s a long way from here to the Iowa caucuses, but, at this moment, we’d keep our eyes on these five — Bachmann, Gingrich, Huckabee, Romney, and Trump.

10 Liberty Today • April 2011

A Terrorist State, Such as Iran, Could Use EMP Device

Targeting America’s Achilles Heal Dr. Peter Vincent Pry

President, EmpactAmerica

Every Member of Congress should join the newly-forming Congressional Caucus on EMP, and help it achieve this year what may well be the most important accomplishment of all congressional careers — saving the lives of millions of Americans, and the existence of our civilization, from the clear and present danger posed by a nuclear or natural electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event.

An electromagnetic pulse is like a super-energetic radio wave that can damage and destroy electronic systems across vast regions, potentially across the entire continental United States. EMP is harmless to people in its direct effects, but by causing the collapse of critical infrastructures that sustain our lives, by causing airliners to crash and vast industrial accidents for example, the indirect effects of EMP would be genocidal.

EMP is a high-tech means of killing millions of people the old-fashioned way — through starvation, disease, and societal collapse.

An EMP can be generated by a terrorist or rogue state nuclear missile, perhaps launched off a freighter near our shores to preserve anonymity, and burst at high-altitude over the United States.

In this manner, a single crude nuclear weapon, lofted by a primitive short-range missile, could generate an EMP that would destroy electronics and electric power across the entire continental United States, causing the collapse of the critical infrastructures — power, transportation, communications, banking and finance, food and water — that are vital to the existence of modern society and the survival of the American people.

Iran Has Conducted Tests Simulating an EMP Attack. Iran, the world’s chief sponsor of international terrorism, openly writes about eliminating the United States with an EMP attack, has conducted live missile launches simulating EMP attacks, and has practiced missile launching from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. North Korea, China and Russia also make no secret of their preparations to destroy the United States with EMP. We May Not Know Our Attacker. A ship-launched EMP attack by terrorists or rogue states would conceal the identity of the attacker, so we might never know who hit us.

An EMP can also be generated by the Sun. A solar flare or coronal mass ejection can generate a “great” geomagnetic storm similar to an EMP attack from a high-yield nuclear weapon, with equally catastrophic consequences.

The last great geomagnetic storm was the Carrington Event of 1859, that caused widespread damage and fires in telegraph stations and other primitive electronics‚ none of which were then necessary for societal survival.

No great geomagnetic storm has occurred since 1859 to threaten the existence of our increasingly electronic society. But such a storm is inevitable. Great geomagnetic storms are estimated to occur every century or so. Many scientists think we are overdue.

Many believe there is a heightened risk of a great geomagnetic storm during the peak of the impending solar maximum, that will occur in 2012-2013. The solar maximum recurs every 11 years. It warrants repeating that a great geomagnetic storm is inevitable.

EMP Commission Findings.

The above findings represent the mainstream scientific consensus, first established by the congressionally-mandated EMP Commission, that examined the nuclear and natural EMP threat for eight years, delivering its final report to Congress in 2008.

The National Academy of Sciences subsequently independently re-examined the EMP Commission’s warnings about the consequences of a great geomagnetic storm, and arrived at the same conclusion, and endorsed the recommendations of the EMP Commission. In 2009, the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States re-examined the EMP threat from terrorists and rogue states, and likewise independently concurred with the EMP Commission’s warning and recommendations.

So there is an official consensus on the EMP threat within the U.S. Government studies, with no official study dissenting from the view that EMP is a potentially catastrophic threat that needs to be addressed urgently.

Two-Thirds U. S. Population Could Perish in 12 Month. The EMP Commission warned that, given our current state of unpreparedness, within 12 months of an EMP event, about two-thirds of the U.S. total population, about 200 million Americans, would perish from starvation, disease and societal collapse. Other credible estimates foresee the loss of American lives in the aftermath of an EMP to be on the order of 80-90 percent of the total U.S. population, some 280 million lives lost.

No Excuse for Vulnerability.

The good news is that there is no excuse for the United States to be vul-

nerable to EMP. The EMP Commission provided a cost-effective plan, endorsed by all subsequent studies, that could within a few years protect U.S. critical infrastructures from the worst effects of EMP. Indeed, protecting the 300 most important high-energy transformers that are indispensable to the national power grid is estimated to cost $100 to $200 million — about one dollar for every American life that would be saved. This alone is probably not sufficient protection, but it is the absolute minimum necessary to create the possibility of saving millions of American lives.

Unfortunately, since 2008, Congress has tried but failed to pass legislation that would implement the EMP Commission’s recommendations. However, we are on the verge of victory.

Last year, the House unanimously passed legislation to protect the national electric grid from EMP, cyber attack, sabotage, and natural disasters, but it narrowly failed in the Senate.

Had the Congressional Caucus on EMP been in existence last year, the legislation would have been enacted, and our nation would already be on the path to EMP protection.

The Congressional Caucus on EMP can and will achieve this year: • Passage of the SHIELD Act, recently introduced by Congressman Trent Franks and co-sponsored by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, legislation designed to protect the national electric grid from nuclear or natural EMP. The SHIELD Act would implement one of the most important recommendations of the EMP Commission. The electric grid is the “keystone” of the critical infrastructures as everything, all the other critical infrastructures that sustain our economy and our existence as a modern society depend, directly or indirectly, upon electricity.

Enactment of the SHIELD Act and pro-

tection of the national electric grid will be a giant step forward toward securing our nation against the effects of an EMP catastrophe.

Other legislative initiatives that I hope the Congressional Caucus on EMP might support this year include: • Establish an EMP Task Force, comprising as many of the original EMP Commissioners who are available to serve, to advise the Congress, Federal and State governments and the private sector on how best to implement the EMP Commission recommendations to protect the critical infrastructures. The EMP Commission was formerly the primary engine driving policymakers toward EMP protection and was the greatest concentration of scientific and technical expertise on EMP protection in the Free World.

The termination of the EMP Commission in 2008, which termination was opposed by both the House of Representatives and the Department of Defense, deprived America of its best informed advocate and advisor on EMP protection, and left a vacuum of expertise on EMP which has still not been filled.

• Passage of a Sense of the Congress declaring nuclear and natural EMP to be a clear and present danger to national and homeland security deserving high priority attention, and urging the President to sign the draft Executive Order on EMP Protection written by the EMP Commission, but never enacted. President Obama, by the simple, single act of signing the Executive Order on EMP Protection, would with the stroke of his pen virtually ensure that our nation would become secure against an EMP catastrophe.

• Passage of legislation directing the Department of Homeland Security to include a nuclear or natural EMP event that threatens catastrophic consequences to the entire continental United States among its National Emergency Planning Scenarios. Unless and until the Department of Homeland Security officially recognizes the EMP threat by including it among the National Emergency Planning Scenarios, planning and training to protect our nation against EMP will continue to be neglected at the federal, state, and local levels, and in the private sector.

• Passage of reporting requirements tasked upon the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Defense: expressing the Sense of the Congress that civil-military authorities should give high priority to joint planning, preparation, and training for survival of the American people and recovery of the life sustaining critical infrastructures from an EMP event; tasking the Secretaries of Homeland Security and Defense to explain what, if anything, they are doing now to jointly plan and prepare for survival and recovery from EMP; and tasking the Secretaries to explain their future joint plans and preparations to avert the loss of millions of American lives from an EMP catastrophe. Most Americans assume that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense already have joint plans and preparations to save American lives and recover our society in the aftermath of a nationwide catastrophe. Unfortunately, this is a myth. In reality, the Defense Department and Homeland Security have laid no plans to save the American people from EMP or from any nationwide disaster, even while the Defense Department does routinely plan and prepare to rescue foreign citizens from major catastrophes, like the Indonesia tidal wave or the Haiti earthquake. Civilmilitary cooperation on EMP protection is urgently needed as only the Department of Defense has the resources to enable the Department of Homeland Security to save millions of American lives and rebuild our nation in the aftermath of an EMP. In concluding, I again urge every Member of Congress to please join the Congressional Caucus on EMP, and help implement the policies, planning, and technical safeguards that are so urgently needed — and in so doing realize what may well prove the crowning achievement of a congressional career by ensuring the survival of America.

Tell Your Congressman to Contact Rep. Trent Franks and Join the Congressional EMP Caucus • URGENT

Liberty Today • April 2011 11

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida

Why I Won’t Vote to Raise the Debt Limit In a few weeks, we will once again reach our legal limit for borrowing, the so-called debt ceiling.

The president and others want to raise this limit. They say it is the mature, responsible thing to do. In fact, it’s nothing more than putting off the tough decisions until after the next election. We cannot afford to continue waiting. This may be our last chance to force Washington to tackle the central economic issue of our time. … I will vote to defeat an increase in the debt limit unless it is the last one we ever authorize and is accompanied by a plan for fundamental tax reform, an overhaul of our regulatory structure, a cut to discretionary spending, a Balanced Budget Amendment, and reforms to save Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.”

– Senator Marco Rubio WASHINGTON — Americans have built the single greatest nation in all of human history. But America’s exceptionalism was not preordained. Every generation has had to confront and solve serious challenges and, because they did, each has left the next better off. Until now.

Our generation’s greatest challenge is an economy that isn’t

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida

growing, alongside a national debt that is. If we fail to confront this, our children will be the first Americans ever to inherit a country worse off than the one their par-

ents were given.

Current federal policies make it harder for job creators to start and grow businesses. Taxes on individuals are complicated and set to rise in less than two years. Corporate taxes will soon be the highest in the industrialized world. Federal agencies torment job creators with an endless string of rules and regulations.

On top of all this, we have an unsustainable national debt. Leaders of both parties have grown our government for decades by spending money we didn’t have. To pay for it, they borrowed $4 billion a day, leaving us with today’s $14 trillion debt. Half of that debt is held by foreign investors, mostly China. And there is no plan to stop.

In fact, President Obama’s latest budget request spends more than $46 trillion over the next decade.

Under this plan, public debt will equal 87% of our economy in less than 10 years. This will scare away job creators and lead to higher taxes, higher interest rates, and greater inflation.

Betting on America used to be a sure thing, but job creators see the warning signs that our leaders ignore. Even the world’s largest bond

THE COMMON SENSE CONSERVATIVE “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing...”

Theodore Roosevelt

fund, PIMCO, recently dumped its holdings of U.S. debt.

We’re therefore at a defining moment in American history. In a few weeks, we will once again reach our legal limit for borrowing, the so-called debt ceiling. The president and others want to raise this limit. They say it is the mature, responsible thing to do.

In fact, it’s nothing more than putting off the tough decisions until after the next election. We cannot afford to continue waiting. This may be our last chance to force Washington to tackle the central economic issue of our time.

“Raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.”

So said then-Sen. Obama in 2006, when he voted against raising the debt ceiling by less than $800 billion to a new limit of $8.965 trillion. As America’s debt now approaches its current $14.29 trillion limit, we are witnessing leadership failure of epic proportions.

I will vote to defeat an increase in the debt limit unless it is the last one we ever authorize and is accompanied by a plan for fundamental tax reform, an overhaul of our regulatory structure, a cut to discretionary spending, a Balanced Budget Amendment, and reforms to save Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

There is still time to accomplish all this. Rep. Dave Camp has already introduced proposals to lower and simplify our tax rates, close loopholes, and make permanent low rates on capital gains and dividends. Even Mr. Obama has endorsed the idea of lowering our corporate tax rate. Sen. Rand Paul, meanwhile, has a bill that would require an up-or-down vote on “major” regulations, those that cost the economy $100 million or more. And the House has already passed a spending plan this year that lowered discretionary spending by $862 billion over 10 years.

Such reductions are important, but nondefense discretionary spending is a mere 19 percent of the budget. Focusing on this alone would lead to draconian cuts to essential and legitimate programs.

To get our debt under control, we must reform and save our entitlement programs.

No changes should be made to Medicare and Social Security for people who are currently in the system, like my mother. But people decades away from retirement, like me, must accept that reforms are necessary if we want Social Security and Medicare to exist at all by the time we are eligible for them.

Finally, instead of simply raising the debt limit, we should reassure job creators by setting a firm statutory cap on our public debt-to-GDP ratio. A comprehensive plan would wind down our debt to sustainable levels of approximately 60 percent within a decade and no more than half of the economy shortly thereafter. If Congress fails to meet these debt targets, automatic acrossthe-board spending reductions should be triggered to close the gap. These public debt caps could go in tandem with a Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment.

This article originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal

12 Liberty Today • April 2011

Liberty Today National Conservative Newspaper

Published monthly on the 1st Thursday of each month

by Community Press, LLC Volume 1, No. 2 April 2011 Email stories and photos to libertytoday@hotmail.com

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Deadline: Three weeks prior Liberty Today is published monthly.

Single Copy $1.50 Periodicals permit pending at Subscription: $24 a year Baton Rouge, LA Community Press, LLC proprietor, 13567 Publisher Diane Jenkins Hooper Rd, Baton Rouge, LA 70818 Editor Woody Jenkins POSTMASTER: Send address Business Manager Candi Lee changes to Circulation Dept., Graphic Artist Terrie Palmer Editorial Coordinator Shara Pollard P.O.Box 1, Central, LA 70739 or visit www.liberty-today.com Editorial Coordinator Jolice Provost

Editorial Page

Too Many Disincentives for Job Creation

Congress Doesn’t Understand Who Creates Jobs and Why Their Goal Is Not to Create More MAIN STREET USA — A local building contractor built 30 homes last year and grossed more than $10 million. He operates his business from home and has one employee.

He contracts out everything else.

Most of his subcontractors run their businesses the same way.

He said, “My main goal is to work at home and not to have any more employees. I could double or triple my business and still have only one employee.”

“Why would I want more employees? I have to fill out endless forms, withhold their taxes, pay the employer share of FICA, pay unemployment insurance and workers comp, get liability insurance to cover them and auto insurance if they drive for me, worry about their health insurance and retirement program, put up with their absenteeism, sicknesses, children’s illnesses, husband’s drinking, or the fact that their wife’s uncle’s nephew died and they need to go to the funeral. Some of them have thought I’m their nanny. And then there’s the personal idiosyncrasies, bad attitudes, and personality conflicts. I’ve had to put up with wage garnishments of the employee or the employee’s spouse and even an embezzlement. I used to live in fear of the torts they might commit that I would be liable for. Are you kidding me? It’s easier — much easier — to do things myself or contract them out!”

“I don’t want any more employees, I don’t need any more employees, and I’m not going to have any more employees, but I definitely intend to stay in business for myself!” he said.

HHH “It’s All About Jobs!” Congressmen, senators, and Presidential candidates love to talk about “job creation.” One prominent Republican declared recently that every bill considered by Congress should be evaluated based on “whether it creates jobs.”

But politicians don’t seem to have a clue about who creates jobs, and they don’t seem to understand that most American business owners don’t have any employees and

have no intention of having any employees.

21.7 Million American Businesses Have No Employees. In 2009, the U. S. Census Bureau issued a report on Business Establishments in the United States. It showed there were 28,400,000 business establishments in this country.

Of those, there were 21,708,000 businesses that were subject to the federal income tax that had no employees! Those businesses had revenue of $991 billion.

Only 7,705,000 U. S. businesses had employees.

So just to be clear: 75 percent of all American businesses have no employees. Only 25 percent of U.S. businesses do have employees.

HHH Which Businesses Have No Employees? Of the 21.7 million businesses with no employees, the Census report said there were 3.0 million professionals such as attorneys, accountants, or architects with no employees, 2.3 million realtors with no employees, 1.9 million retailers with no employees, 2.7 million contractors in the construction business with no employees, 1.0 million transportation businesses with no employees, 1.7 million health care providers with no employees, and 1.1 million artists, entertainers, and instructors who were in business for themselves and had no employees.

HHH What Businesses Do Generate Jobs? As mentioned earlier, 7.7 million businesses in the United States actually employed one or more people. Those businesses had a total of 120.6 million employees.

Ironically, big business — those with 1,000 or more employees — provided only 13.4 percent of all

American jobs.

Most employment in this country is provided by small business.

Here are the numbers: • Businesses with one to 20 employees had 30 million employees • Businesses with 20 to 99 employees had 35.6 million employees • Businesses with 100 to 499 employees had 30.4 million employees • Businesses with 500 to 999 employees had 8.3 million employees, and • Businesses with 1,000 or more employees had only 16.2 million employees. All the Fortune 500 companies fall within that final category.

HHH What Is the Engine That Employs People in America? The news media focuses its coverage of the economy on two things: The stock market and the jobs report.

If the stock market is going up, that’s reported as good news. If the jobs report is up, that too is reported as good news. But the news media get confused if one is up and the other is down. Thus, when the stock market is up but employment numbers are down, it is referred to as “a jobless recovery.”

The truth is, the stock market is not the American economy. It represents the collective guessing of individuals and institutions that “invest” in the largest companies.

Those companies, many of which are international, rather than American, companies, only employ only a small fraction of U.S. employees.

As shown above, the smallest American businesses — those with one to 20 employees — employ nearly twice as many workers as do businesses with 1,000 or more employees — 30.0 million workers in companies with one to 20 employees and only 16.2 million in compa-

nies with 1,000 or more employees.

American businesses with under 100 employees have 65.6 million workers — well over 50 percent of the employment in the country.

Businesses with under 500 employees have 96 million of the 120.6 million workers.

So it is small business — not large business — that employs the vast majority of American workers.

HHH Where Will Future Job Growth Come From? If the past is any indication, any future job growth will come mainly from small business.

From 1990 to 2007, here is where job growth in the U.S. came from: • Businesses with one to 20 employees grew from 24.3 million to 30.1 million — an increase of 5.8 million jobs.

• Businesses with 20 to 99 employees grew from 27.4 million to 35.6 million — 8.2 million jobs.

• Businesses with 100 to 499 employees grew from 22.9 million to 30.4 million — 7.5 million jobs.

• Businesses with 500 to 999 employees grew from 6.5 to 8.2 million — 1.7 million jobs.

• Businesses with 1,000 or more employees grew from 12.2 to 16.2 million — 4.0 million jobs.

So from 1990 to 2007, a total of 27.2 million new jobs were created.

More than one-half, 16 million, came from businesses with one to 99 employees. Only 14.7 percent of new job growth came from big business of 1,000 or more employees.

HHH Are Jobs the Answer? Today, there are too many disincentives for businesses to create new jobs. Big business faces these disincentives by moving jobs overseas or shutting plants or investing in technology instead of jobs.

Small business still hires sometimes, but 21.7 million American businesses have no employees.

That number is likely to increase, so long as the disincentives to creating jobs remain so strong.

For small business, the politicians’ talk of “job creation” is meaningless chatter. Business owners are likely to continue to do what makes sense for them. Sometimes that means doing everything yourself and contracting out what you can’t do yourself.

Since Congress and the President seem unlikely to lift any of the burdens that discourage small business from hiring, job creation is likely to remain slow. But, on the bright side, self-employment and entrepreneurship seem likely to grow, even if the stock market and the jobs report send mixed and unreliable messages about the state of the American economy.

Liberty Today Solicits Your News Releases, Photos, and Op-Ed Pieces via Email WASHINGTON — Liberty Today

asks that conservative public officials and candidates, conservative organizations, businesses, and individuals submit news releases,

photos, and op-ed pieces for consideration for future editions. They should be sent to libertytoday@hotmail.com or mailed to Liberty Today, Box 1, Central, LA 70739.

Photos should be high resolution with at least 200 dpi. However, please confirm our interest before sending multiple high resolution photos.

Material need not be political and

may include human interest pieces and local stories. Liberty Today will be published on the 1st Thursday of each month, and the deadline is three weeks before that date.

Liberty Today • April 2011 13

Editor: Woody Jenkins

Liberty Today: A Refreshing New Way for Conservative Donors to Stay Informed WASHINGTON — This is the 2nd issue of Liberty Today, a new national conservative newspaper with a particular goal: • Keep donors to conservative candidates and donors to conservative causes informed on the important national and international issues facing America.

The goal is to reach every month the 40,000 individuals who give $1,000 or more a year to conservative candidates and causes.

Liberty Today is designed to give donors the information they need to make decisions on the issues and keep them informed on the candidates for President, the Senate, and the Congress.

Liberty Today is funded by individuals, businesses, and foundations that purchase blocks of gift subscriptions.

A Patron of Liberty Today purchases One Block of 100 oneyear gift subscriptions to Liberty Today for $2,400 (100 annual subscriptions x $24 each).

These gift subscriptions are then sent to 100 of the largest donors to conservative candidates and causes. Lists are prioritized based on the donors’ level of giving to multiple conservative candidates

Meet Editor of Liberty Today

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (left) with Liberty Today editor Woody Jenkins and publisher Diane Jenkins. Woody Jenkins, who has 47 years’ experience as a journalist, served as an advisor to President Reagan and as a member of the Louisiana Legislature.

coming a Patron, call Liberty Toand organizations.

For more information on be- day at 225-921-1433.

WASHINGTON — The editor of Liberty Today is award-winning journalist Woody Jenkins: • Jenkins has 47 years’ experience as a radio newsman, TV station general manager, and newspaper editor and publisher.

• He has been honored by the National Newspaper Association, which represents 2,700 member newspapers, for General Excellence, Best Feature Writing, Best Business Reporting, and Best Editorial.

His weekly newspaper has won 1st Place for General Excellence from the Louisiana Press Association.

• For 15 years, he produced Baton Rouge Today, which was named Best Local News Program in the U.S. by Community Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the LSU Journalism Hall of Fame.

Jenkins also served for 28 years as an elected member of the Louisiana House of Representatives. The National Taxpayers Union and Eagle Forum named him Legislator of the Year in the U.S. The Christian Coalition named him “Louisiana’s ProLife, Pro-Family Champion,” the only such award ever given. Jenkins authored the Declaration of Rights in the current Louisiana Constitution.

Liberty Today Offers Objective Reporting of Current Events, Editorial Policy Favoring Free Markets, Traditional Values WASHINGTON — Liberty Today policies on news reporting and expressions of opinion are as follows: News Coverage Liberty Today will provide coverage of national and international news in an honest, objective manner without bias based on party or personality. Because of the vast amount of news and the scarcity of space, priority will be given

to news that citizens need to know to make decisions in their role as citizens, especially if that news is not being widely reported in the newspapers of the United States.

Opinion Liberty Today will provide space for elected officials, organizations, business owners, and citizens to express their opinions on a variety of issues.

Opinions expressed in editorials of Liberty Today will be based on a belief in • Respect for fundamental human rights, such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to life, the right to property, the right to keep and bear arms, and the right to be secure against unreasonable searches, seizures, and invasions of privacy.

• Free enterprise and energy independence • Fiscal responsibility, a balanced budget, and tax limitation • Foreign policies and trade policies which protect the interests of the American people • A strong national defense • Respect for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rights of the states and the people.

WASHINGTON — Liberty Today is forming an Editorial Advisory Board, which will recommend story ideas, writers, and editorial commentary for consideration by the editorial staff of Liberty Today. It will also critique past issues of the publication and make recommendations for any changes

which it deems advisable.

Invitations to serve on the Editorial Advisory Board are made at the discretion of the publisher of Liberty Today from among the Patrons of the newspaper. No elected or appointed federal official may serve on the board.

The Editorial Advisory Board

will meet at least once each year in Washington and on such other occasions as may be possible. A dinner meeting is currently being planned during FreedomFest 2011, which will be held July 14 to 16 at Bally’s in Las Vegas, NV. The annual Editorial Advisory Board meeting in Washington will

include a dinner meeting with a prominent conservative United States Senator or Congressman.

The first such annual meeting will be held this fall.

If interested in serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of Liberty Today, email libertytoday@ hotmail.com or call 225-921-1433.

Liberty Today Editorial Advisory Board Now Being Organized

Presidential Candidates Will Be Invited to Meet with Editorial Board

WASHINGTON — The Editorial Advisory Board of Liberty Today or a subcommittee of the board will interview candidates for President during the upcoming primary season. Candidates for any party’s nomination will be considered.

Interviews will be conducted informally with the goal of ascertaining more about each candidate’s personal and leadership qualities, as well as the candidate’s stands on the issues facing the country.

Photographs and a report on each such interview may be published in Liberty Today and on the

Editorial Advisory Board Announced

WASHINGTON — Liberty Today has announced the initial members of its Editorial Advisory Board. They are • Dr. John Templeton • Tony Perkins

website, www.liberty-today.com.

No member of the Editorial Advisory Board who has expressed a preference for a particular candidate in the election may participate in the interview process.

• Major John F. Linnen • Jim Lloyd • Woody Jenkins The Board is still in formation.

Members are chosen from among the Patrons of Liberty Today.

The Editorial Advisory Board may also from time to time hear presentations from organizations or individuals who wish to present their position on a particular issue or piece of legislation.

Normally, an individual or organization which desires to influence Liberty Today’s editorial policies should simply mail a packet of materials, including proposed legislation and background information, to Liberty Today, Post Office Box 1, Greenwell Springs, LA. Presidential candidates who wish to make a presentation to the Editorial Advisory Board of Liberty Today should email libertytoday@hotmail.com or call 225921-1433, in order to determine if a mutually convenient time and place can be arranged.

14 Liberty Today • April 2011

Freedom-Lovers from Everywhere Will Come to Las Vegas

Join Us at FreedomFest July 14-16 Liberty Today Invites You to Great Event

A Message from Woody Jenkins, Editor of Liberty Today: Dear Liberty Today Readers, We are entering one of the most critical and dangerous periods of economic upheaval in the modern history: Millions are unemployed, real estate prices still falling, skyrocketing foreclosures, record gold and silver prices, a 10-year bear market on Wall Street, and a $14 trillion national debt. Overseas, we are witnessing riots in the Middle East, oil prices spiking to over $100 a barrel, and Red ChiWoody Jenkins na threatening our strategic minerals and building up their military-industrial complex.

The scary part is that our leaders don’t seem to have a clue about what to do about these threats, short of “spend, tax, and regulate” even more. Overseas, they continue to fight an ever more elusive enemy, costing us trillions of dollars.

What to do?

Well, there is an annual conference that has lots of answers — both for our nation and our own personal financial well-being. I want to invite you to join me in attending!

It’s called FreedomFest — The world’s largest gathering of free minds! This year, it’s scheduled for July 14-16, 2011, at Bally’s Events Center in Las Vegas.

I have been invited to address the conference and feel honored, because the Speakers List is a Who’s Who of the conservative and libertarian movements. FreedomFest will include an emergency meeting on July 14 to address the chaos in the world economy due to the lack of leadership in America. Here are some of the speakers for July 14: • Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox News will hold a private VIP luncheon, followed by a general session on “Do We Even Have a Constitution Anymore?” His remarks will be strictly off the record — no tape recording allowed!

Note: Judge Napolitano’s private VIP luncheon and the other luncheons require special reservations. If you want to attend, please call Tami Holland immediately at 1-866-266-5101.

• Peter Thiel, co-founder of Pay Pal and early investor in Facebook, now a member of the exclusive Forbes 400 Richest People in America and a staunch libertarian.

His topic at a special luncheon: “Stalled Technology in America: End of the Future?” After the luncheon, he will debate George Gilder on “The Great Stagnation: What is the Future of Technology?”

• Steve Forbes, official ambassador to FreedomFest, is the most popular speaker. His topic: “Are We Headed for an American Revolution — or a French Revolution?”

• John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market, will address the growing dangers of Obamacare, plus “Re-Branding Capitalism in the 21st Century” and “Living Healthy, Wealthy and Wise to 100: the Whole Foods Way.” Mackey is one of the most insightful leaders in the business world today, and if you haven’t heard him, you are in for a treat! He will also take on the Objectivists in a new debate.

Both Steve Forbes and John Mackey have agreed to become our official “good-will ambassadors” for FreedomFest. They love FreedomFest so much that they will attend all three days. In fact, most of our speakers stay all three days.

Why? As Keith Fitz-Gerald states, “FreedomFest is the conference that even speakers want to attend!”

Make Free Reservations for Liberty Today Special Session on The Threat of EMP I will serve as Master of Ceremonies of a Special Session of FreedomFest sponsored by Liberty Today. The tentative topic for the

session will be How to Protect Our Nation and Our Families from an EMP Terrorist Attack. (An EMP is an Electromagnetic Pulse which is generated when a nuclear weapon is exploded above ground level.

It could destroy all power plants, electrical power lines, computers, cell phones, radios, and other electronic devices within hundreds or even thousands of miles, depending on the height of the explosion. See stories on pages 5 and 10) The session will be an opportunity to learn more about the most serious potential threat facing this country. It will also show how we can prevent such an attack and, if such an attack does occur, how to take steps now to protect our families. The session will also be an opportunity for you to connect with us at Liberty Today.

The session will be free to everyone who is registered for the conference. But if you would like to be sure you get a seat, please email me at libertytoday@hotmail.com to make reservations.

FreedomFest Success Stories FreedomFest is the brainchild of my long-time friend, Mark Skousen, editor of Forecasts & Strategies, university professor, and author of more than 25 books. He guarantees that you will think more clearly and live better as a result of FreedomFest. Thousands have changed their way of acting and thinking. One couple altered their estate and set up a “job-creating” foundation as a result of a session.

A consultant landed a major contract with someone he met at the conference. A father brought his son who converted to free-market economics. At the end of the show, he said, “Dad, promise me we’ll come back next year!” And one speaker, Dinesh D’Souza, made the cover of Forbes magazine because Steve Forbes heard him speak at a luncheon. A couple even went on their honeymoon at FreedomFest!

Top Speakers at Conference • Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute, a peren-

Liberty Today • April 2011 15

Liberty Today Will Sponsor Session on the Threat of EMP

2011 Annual Meeting of Freedom nial favorite and author of “Losing Ground,” “Why I am a Libertarian,” and “Human Accomplishment,” will return to Las Vegas to speak about his latest book.

• Lawrence W. Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), will speak on “America’s Character Crisis: Fix It or Nothing Else Matters.”

• Doug Casey, editor of the International Speculator, on “Make Chaos, Crisis, and Corruption Your Friend” at a Saturday luncheon.

HHH “I do not think I have a single adjective to describe how truly monumental FreedomFest was,” Joel Stern, finance professor at Chicago, Columbia, and Cape Town, said after last year’s show. He had flown in from Moscow to attend. “You had people from such varieties in background. It is hard to imagine anything like this happening with any other organization.” Professor Stern returns this year to speak on “Emerging Markets: Danger and Opportunity Ahead.”

He will join a popular panel, “From Good to Great: The Keys of Successful Leadership” with Steve Forbes, John Mackey, Peter Thiel, and Joel Stern. This was the most popular panel last year, and this is an encore.

Assessing the Chinese Threat One of the special sessions will be “The Growing Chinese Threat: Crisis and Opportunities,” with Asian experts Keith Fitz-Gerald of The Money Map and James Marsh of University of Hawaii.

HHH Comprehensive Three-Day Investment Conference Financial freedom is a vital ingredient to our freedoms. That’s why the American eagle silver dollar is FreedomFest’s symbol — a symbol of freedom and wealth. Every year, FreedomFest hosts a threeday investment conference, which I will be a part of. This year financial experts include: • Victor Sperandeo, “Trader Vic,” on “Why the United States is Headed for Hyperinflation.”

• Martin Truax of Morgan Keegan on “Beating the Market With Our Equity Income Account.”

• Top-Performing Stock Market Panel, including Donald Smith of Donald Smith & Co., Adrian Day, and Alex Green of Oxford Club, who have all beat the market and Warren Buffett for 20 years.

• Plus Rick Rule, Van Simmons, Martin Weiss, Ron Holland, and others.

• Pat Goodman, former UNLV president and editor of No Load Portfolios, on “Investing Right” and, along with Wayne Allyn Root, “Is Las Vegas a Libertarian City?

Big Mock Debate on Public Unions • Every year FreedomFest showcases its big mock trial. In 2009, it was “Capitalism on Trial,” and last year it was “Religion on Trial.”

This year, the topic will be, “Public Unions: Good or Bad for America?” It’s going to be a blockbuster!

FreedomFest has confirmed prosecuting attorney Steve Moore of the Wall Street Journal taking on defense attorney Thea Hill of the AFL-CIO. Star witnesses against the unions will be John Mackey and Steve Forbes. Witnesses for the unions will be University of Wisconsin-

AMONG HIS MANY TALENTS, FreedomFest founder Mark Skousen also does a masterful job of inpersonating his 8th-great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin.

LibertyToday presents

The Threat of an EMP Attack: How America Can Prevent It and How Your Family Can Survive It

A free session but reservations are suggested.

Send your name, mailing address, and email to libertytoday@hotmail.com FreedomFest • Las Vegas • July 14-16, 2011 Time and Place of Session TBA via Email Madison law professor Karl Shoemaker, one of the protestors, and Connecticut College radical economist Spencer Pack.

Be assured, the sparks will fly!

C-SPAN Book TV will have nationwide coverage, and you, the audience, will make up the jury!

HHH Prof. Spencer Pack of Connecticut College will also debate Prof.

Daniel Klein of George Mason University on “Libertarian, Conservative or Radical Egalitarian: Will the Real Adam Smith Please Stand Up?” Not to be missed!

Plus there will be a debate on “Vaccines: Good or Bad for America?”

Special Friday Financial Luncheon Special Atlanta Investment Conference, run by Martin and Marji Truax, is coming to FreedomFest this year, and will be holding a special luncheon on Friday, July 15, with special speakers Bob Bishop, Rick Maybury, Adrian Day, and Mark Skousen, along with MC’s Gary Alexander and Chip Wood. These experts will be offering their latest analysis of the financial crisis and specific ways to profit.

Bob Bishop and Rick Maybury no longer speak at investment conferences, but have made a special exception at this event, and you won’t want to miss it. Space is limited and is $70 a person.

Plus these speakers: • Jerome Corsi, editor, World Net Daily….and Brent Bozell of Media Research Center.

• Phil Gordon, “The Inner Gambler: The Philosophy of a World Class Poker Player” • Hollywood insider Marc Eliot on libertarian/conservative actors

Ronald Reagan and Clint Eastwood.

• Marty Cummins, on “The Right Way and the Wrong Way to Give Money.” This man will forever change your views about giving to good causes.

• Irene and Rick Butler live near Vancouver, Canada, but have lived around the world. Their topic: “Trekking the Globe with (Mostly) Gentle Footsteps” • Michael Shermer of Scientific American on his new book “The Believing Brain.” Editor of Skeptic magazine, Shermer shows how, using the new neuroscience, you can change people’s minds.

• Pre-Conference Seminar by Mark Skousen, editor of Forecasts & Strategies: “A Viennese Waltz Down Wall Street: How the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle Can Make You a Better Investor.”

• Robert Greenberg, composer and professor extraordinaire of music, and the Teaching Co’s #1 professor on classical music and composers. He’s done 28 CD programs for the Teaching Co., the most of anyone! He’s going to do sessions with a top-rated sound system and piano which he plays, such as “Ludwig van Beethoven and Freedom,” on Beethoven’s life and revolutionary music; and “Music that Caused Standing Ovations, Encores, and Riots!” Not to be missed.

ANTHEM First Libertarian Film Festival FreedomFest 2011 will host Anthem, the first libertarian film festival, at this year’s conference.

Dozens of new films and documentaries with libertarian themes will be shown throughout the FreedomFest conference, starting Wednesday, July 13 in the Sky Room on the

26th floor of Bally’s Resort.

Anthem is sponsored by the Pacific Research Institute, the largest state think tank in California. The director of Anthem is Jo Ann Skousen, entertainment editor of Liberty magazine and contributor to the Daily Caller.

Great prizes will be awarded at the Saturday night banquet, and the winner of the Anthem Film Festival will be shown following the banquet. For details or to submit a film, go to www.anthemfilmfestival.com.

HHH “Next to my wedding day and the birth of my children, FreedomFest 2008 was the highlight of my life!” — Alex Green, Oxford Club Executive Editor HHH “I was going to leave early, but after my first day at FreedomFest, I changed my flight at a cost of several hundred dollars more to attend the entire conference. It was worth every penny!” — Carl Johnston HHH Don’t Miss the Amazing Opening Cocktail Party….

Attendees always talk about the incredible buzz they feel when they walk into the exhibit hall starting with the opening cocktail party. Mingle with a hundred exhibitors and enjoy complimentary drinks and hors d’œuvre as you get to know the friendly attendees.

Be amazed by the libertarian magician Peter Studabaker and see him create money faster than Ben Bernanke.

Test the knowledge of Thomas Jefferson look-alike Bill Barker….or sing along or dance with extraordinary piano man JP. (Try to stump him with your favorite song — bet you can’t!) …and the World’s Most Unusual Exhibit Hall The FreedomFest exhibit hall offers the most diverse group of exhibitors you can imagine — “The Trade Show for Liberty.” It’s open all three days. Imagine walking into a convention center with all the freemarket think tanks and freedom organizations found in one location.

It’s One-Stop Shopping for Liberty!

Visit with representatives of freemarket think tanks from around the world like Reason, Cato, Heritage, Fraser, Mises, FEE, State Policy Network, Goldwater, Sovereign Society, Universidad Francisco Maroquin, and the Adam Smith Institute…..News organizations like Liberty Today, Fox News, Newsmax, Human Events, Daily Bell, American Spectator, the Daily Caller, and C-SPAN (which covers it every year). There’s Blogger’s Row….and book sellers like Liberty Fund and Laissez Faire Books (our official bookstore — famous authors sign books all day)….Financial publications like the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and Investors Business Daily, and Eagle Publishing…. And top investment services in energy, mining, gold and silver!

Registration

FreedomFest 2011 Las Vegas • July 14-16

Registration fee is $495 a person or $795 a couple includes: • Three full days of general sessions and breakout sessions • Special pre-conference session on Wednesday • All conference materials • Unlimited entrance to FreedomFest 2011 exhibit hall • Cocktail reception Does not include luncheons or dinner events To register, call Tami at 866-2665101 or go to freedomfest.com.

16 Liberty Today • April 2011

Senators Say Obama Violated War Powers

“Whether or not to authorize the President to send our men and women into a military conflict is one of the most difficult and important decisions we make as Senators,” Lee said. “Yet, the Democratic leadership in the Senate allowed for only 10 minutes of

discussion on this critical issue. It is a shameful and discouraging display. We owe more to our troops, their families, and every American concerned about our involvement in a third Middle Eastern conflict.”

Sens. Paul and Lee cosponsored a resolution that said, “The Presi-

dent does not have the power to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

Sen. Paul asked for 30 minutes for debate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid denied the request and only allowed 10 minutes, then sought to table the motion to avoid a vote. The vote to table the motion passed.

“We channel the war power in the Constitution so as to make sure these discussions always come to the forefront, always be brought up by the elected representatives of the people in Congress,” Lee said on the Senate floor. “And for that reason, although we give power to the President to be the Commander in Chief in Article Two of the Constitution, in Article One of the Constitution we reserve that power – that power to declare war to Congress.

“This is how we guarantee the people’s voice will be heard and that people’s sons and daughters won’t be sent off to war without some public debate and discussion by those who have been duly elected by the people and stand accountable to the people.”

Lee’s remarks were cut short as the 10 minutes expired.

spite what skeptics would like you to believe. These common-sense conservative solutions to address our country’s fiscal crisis will ensure that we meet this challenge head on, rather than put off the tough decisions for another day.

Gimmicks and tricks won’t cure our spending addiction – we need honest solutions for the challenges ahead. This budget blueprint offers a clear path forward in our ongoing quest to bring some fiscal sanity to Washington.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), RSC Chairman, said, “Americans deserve leaders with the discipline to do the hard thing when it’s the right thing. President Obama’s budget relies on gimmicks, trillion-dollar tax hikes, and counting the same

dollar twice, and it still never even comes close to balance.”

Jordan said the Honest Solutions Budget is based on the following principles: • Balancing the budget by 2020.

• Real improvements in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security to ensure their long-term sustainability by offering increased choices and improved services, and steps to save Social Security by strengthening its bank account.

• Reduce spending and trim down the size of government in Washington.

• Get government out of the way so America’s businesses have the ability to grow and create jobs.

• Termination of many federal programs that are unconstitutional,

duplicative, or harmful to the free enterprise system in America.

• Prohibit earmarks and eliminates pork-barrel spending.

• Reform the federal budget process so it is easier to reduce spending than to increase it.

• Enact rules to prevent out-ofcontrol Washington spending that stifles private-sector job creation.

• Keep taxes low and provide for pro-growth tax reform so we can save, invest, and create jobs.

• Repeals the tax increases in Obamacare.

One of the Republicans’ biggest challenges is how to keep Obama in town and negotiating. He is reportedly ready to leave Washington at any time for a “much needed” and “long-planned” vacation.

keep your plan!” were dead wrong.

The Obama administration has Senate Republican Leader already admitted that at least seven WASHINGTON — Contrary to the million seniors will now lose their confident predictions of some, the Medicare Advantage plans. contents of the health care bill are And one of the administration’s even worse than anyone expected. A own top health care analysts recently admitted that this oft-repeated year after Demopledge was “not true in all cases.” crats passed it on a We all knew the bill created strong party-line vote, it incentives for businesses to change looks even worse or drop employees from health plans than it did then. they get through their jobs. Now that And that’s saying the bill is passed, the White House something! admits it too. One recent study sug I’d like to look gests that as many as 35 million back on what American workers could see their we’ve learned employer-based plans dropped in about this bill this way.

Sen. McConnell since its passage.

Shortly before the final vote, So the administration’s promises then-Speaker Pelosi famously said on this point, which were echoed by that Democrats had to pass the bill Capitol Hill Democrats like Speaker so we could find out what was in it Pelosi, turned out to be hollow. And — away, as she put it, from the fog today, even the administration itof controversy. Now that the fog has self predicts that more than half of lifted, the question arises — what all American workers will see their do we know we didn’t know then? current employee-sponsored health Well, most importantly, we now care plans changed within a couple know that those who promised us of years. that “If you like your plan, you can What happened to the reassuring

predictions that everybody’s plans would stay the same?

It turned out to be nonsense.

So Americans have every reason to be outraged not only by the bill itself, but also by the rhetoric that was used to sell it. And far from being reassured of the bill’s merits, Americans feel betrayed.

Check the record. I doubt that one Democrat who voted for this bill told his constituents they’d see a change in their plans. Yet, here we are, a year later, and they just expect people to accept it.

What else do we know about the bill? Well, at a time when nearly 14 million Americans are looking for work, we now know this bill only increases costs and burdens on employers and small businesses, making it even harder for them to keep current workers on board or to hire new ones.

According to the independent CBO, the health care bill will result in the loss of more than 800,000 jobs over the next 10 years. What’s more, 200 economists and experts, including two former CBO directors, have

said that the law’s ‘expensive mandates and penalties create major barriers to stronger job growth.’

Another chief selling point of the bill was the promise it would lower costs. Yet, now we hear estimates from one of the administration’s top actuaries that it will increase costs by $311 billion. And the CBO now estimates it will increase federal health care spending by nearly half a trillion dollars over the next decade.

What about the cost to individuals and families? Well, according to the same independent analysts at the CBO, once fully implemented, the bill is expected to cause premiums on family policies to increase an average of $2,100 a year.

Taken together, all these broken promises illustrate why so many Americans continue to support a full repeal – which the new Republicanled House has passed – followed by common sense reforms that will actually lower costs, improve care, and protect jobs.

The fog of controversy may have lifted, but the bill looks even worse than when we passed it!

Continued from Page 1

Photo by Woody Jenkins

Mike Lee issued a Dear Colleague letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The letter requested the Senate take up the pending business of Sen. Paul’s Sense of the Senate, which quotes Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in 2007, saying “The President does not have the power to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”

“Establishing whether the President has the constitutional power to attack another country without congressional authority is the most important issue we can discuss given the President’s recent actions,” Sen. Paul said. “I implore our Senate leadership to make this a priority before we continue work on other matters in the chamber.”

Later in the week, the Senate did take up the matter briefly but did not a vote on Paul’s resolution.

That led Sen. Lee to express his disappointment at the Senate’s refusal to allow reasonable debate over whether the President had authority to send American troops into harm’s way in Libya.

SENS. RAND PAUL (R-KY) (left) and MIKE LEE were happy on swearing in day in January but unhappy at President Obama’s failure to submit the military action in Libya to the United States Congress. The senators argued Libya posed no imminent threat to the United States and therefore the action required Congressional approval.

Conservatives Insist on Plan to Balance Budget Continued from Page 1

While praising Ryan’s work, the House Republican Study Group, a group of House conservatives, unveiled a plan to go a step further and balance the federal budget over the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul introduced a plan to get to a balanced budget over the next five years.

The House Republican Study Group calls its plan the Honest Solutions: Fiscal Year 2012 Budget, a conservative blueprint that brings our country’s federal budget deficit into balance in less than ten years.

Rep Scott Garrett (R-NJ), RSC Budget and Spending Task Force chairman, said, “This budget blueprint proves that it is possible to balance the budget in 10 years, de-

Obamacare: We’ve Read It, and It’s Worse Than Expected Mitch McConnell