* Forwarded (from: LIBERATOR) by Roy J. Tellason using timEd 1.10.y2k.

From: advo{at}self-gov.org (Advocates for SelfGovernment)
Subject: Liberator Online, Vol. 7, No. 21

In This Issue:

The feds are creating an evil computer database to spy on you -- and you
can take an Online Action Step to halt it;  Bush administration is creating
an ominous "parallel legal system"; move is underway to eliminate
tariffs worldwide; it's not too late for you to qualify for a great
libertarian honor; Mary Ruwart is asked how libertarianism can help
underdeveloped countries, and what libertarians think about capital
punishment; Michael Cloud asks if you are discouraged about liberty -- and
if so, what are you going to do about it....

All this and *much much more* in the world's largest-circulation
libertarian email newsletter...

THE LIBERATOR ONLINE

December 3, 2002
Vol. 7, No. 21
Circulation: 53,652 in 104 countries

Published by the Advocates for Self-Government.
Created and edited by Paul Schmidt, mailto:paul{at}self-gov.org
Co-edited by James W. Harris, mailto:james{at}self-gov.org
_____________________________________________________________

"The Advocates is a great organization which I highly
recommend....Along with the LP, you're reaching people one-on-one better
than anyone else. You're tilling the soil, sowing the seeds that other
organizations in the libertarian
movement are reaping the benefits from."

-- Dave Nolan, Libertarian Party co-founder, Nolan Chart creator
   _____________________________________________________________

(Snip...)

WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH THE ADVOCATES

* ACTION STEP To Stop Government Spy Program: In this issue you can read
about the ominous new federal spy program "Total Information
Awareness." The ACLU has created a page that allows you to TAKE ACTION
to stop this program now, by sending a free fax to President Bush asking
that he renounce and end this new effort to invade our privacy. We are
pleased, as part of our "America Stands for Liberty" program, to
provide you with information about this ACLU effort. (We are not connected
in any way with the ACLU.) To send a free fax or learn more, visit:
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11323&c=130

(Snip...)

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, UNBELIEVABLE NEWS
by James W. Harris

Federal Computer Database to Spy on All Americans

Alarming new federal government plans for spying on all Americans are
straight out of George Orwell's 1984.

The feds are busily creating a massive database that will create files on
virtually every American from cradle to grave. The Pentagon's creepy new
Office of Information Awareness is building a system called "Total
Information
Awareness." Total Information Awareness will, among other things,
monitor virtually every purchase and financial transaction made by American
citizens to seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity." 
This consumer information
will be merged with government database information including visa records,
passports, arrest records or reports of "suspicious activity"
previously given to law enforcement agencies. The program will also pursue
development of biometric technology to enable the further identification
and tracking of individuals.

According to federal spokesmen, such things as large cash withdrawals, or
the purchase of one-way airline tickets or firearms, could trigger
investigations via the Total Information Awareness database. The database
will know your reading habits, phone and Internet use (thus creating a
First Amendment chilling effect), know when you buy a gun (thus creating de
facto national gun registration), and so on. No warrant, no suspicion of
criminal activity is required for this information-gathering.

According to the ACLU, Total Information Awareness will "effectively
provide government officials with immediate access to our personal
information: all of our communications (phone calls, emails and web
searches), financial records,
purchases, prescriptions, school records, medical records and travel
history....Under this program, our entire lives would be catalogued and
available to government officials."

The Office of Information Awareness's unbelievable logo seems to flaunt the
Orwellian nature of the agency: a huge eye atop a pyramid scanning the
globe, with the Latin motto "Knowledge is Power."

See it for yourself at:

http://www.reason.com/0210/artifact.shtml

As Reason Magazine noted: "If you wanted to play on the fears of every
paranoiac in the country, you couldn't do much better than the Office of
Information Awareness's logo." Of course, given the unprecedented
nature of the Total Information Awareness program, it's hardly paranoid to
be alarmed by this sinister agency.

If that wasn't enough to set you shivering, the Total Information Awareness
program was conceived by, and is headed by, the notorious John Poindexter,
the former national security adviser to President Reagan who was convicted
on five counts of misleading Congress and making false statements during
the Iran-Contra investigation.

"John has a real passion for this project," one government
official told Fox News. (Why aren't we surprised?)

Total Information Awareness is a police-state measure, pure and simple. It
violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the Constitution and Bill of
Rights, and it will mean a society in which federal agents are constantly
monitoring every move of every citizen.

The government -- of course -- defends Total Information Awareness as a
necessary tool to fight terrorism. British statesman William Pitt
(1759-1806) had the proper response to that:

"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is
the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."

Increasingly it seems the biggest threat to American liberties isn't from
terrorists, but rather from government officials intent on doing to our
Constitutional liberties what the 9-11 terrorists did to the World Trade
Center.

(Sources:

   http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70992,00.html
   http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11323&c=130
   http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/#resources
   http://www.cato.org/research/articles/pena-021122.html )

* * *

Feds Creating Ominous "Parallel Legal System"

Yet another example of why these are disturbing times for liberty, from the
opening paragraphs of an article in the December 1 Washington Post:

"The Bush administration is developing a parallel legal system in
which terrorism suspects -- US citizens and noncitizens alike -- may be
investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal
protections guaranteed by the ordinary system, lawyers inside and outside
the government say.

"The elements of this new system are already familiar from President
Bush's orders and his aides' policy statements and legal briefs: indefinite
military detention for those designated "enemy combatants,"
liberal use of "material witness" warrants,
counterintelligence-style wiretaps and searches led by law enforcement
officials and, for noncitizens, trial by military commissions or
deportation after strictly closed hearings.

"Only now, however, is it becoming clear how these elements could
ultimately interact.

"For example, under authority it already has or is asserting in court
cases, the administration, with approval of the special Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court, could order a clandestine search of a US
citizen's home and, based on the information gathered, secretly declare the
citizen an enemy
combatant, to be held indefinitely at a US military base. Courts would have
very limited authority to second-guess the detention, to the extent that
they were aware of it..."

The Washington Post article goes into more detail of what some critics
charge is an attempt to bypass and/or subvert the Constitution, in the name
of fighting terrorism.

(Source: Wash. Post, "In Terror War, 2nd Track for Suspects":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58308-2002Nov30.html )

* * *

US Calls for Ending Tariffs Worldwide

And now for some all-too-rare *good news* from the federal government.

The US government has called for a series of tariff cuts with the ultimate
goal being the elimination of all tariffs worldwide on industrial and
consumer goods by 2015, under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Commerce Secretary Donald
Evans, who unveiled the bold proposal in late November, said the proposal
would eliminate tariffs on $6 trillion worth of non-farm goods.

Zoellick said the plan would benefit American manufacturers and American
consumers, as well as people worldwide.

"This historic proposal would benefit the average American family of
four with an extra $1,600 a year, while removing high foreign tariff
barriers on more than $670 billion in US industrial and consumer
exports," he said.

US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said: "There's a very important
reason to do it: the whole world will be better for it." O'Neill
argues that world economic output would increase by $2 trillion if all
trade barriers were removed. "A world of no trade and tariff barriers
is the north star," he says.

High US tariffs on some industries -- including steel, textile and clothing
-- have long angered developing nations. The US proposal to eliminate these
tariffs is heartening.

However, critics note that the plan would NOT apply to agriculture -- which
is the main export of most developing countries. US agriculture tariffs --
coupled with massive US subsidies to farmers -- have long been criticized
by foreign farmers desperate to reach the lucrative US market. (The US,
however, has separately proposed the universal elimination of agricultural
subsidies -- a move opposed by the subsidy-heavy European Union and Japan.)

The proposal is far from becoming policy, and 2015 seems a long way away.
But it is encouraging to see such a bold proposal being seriously
discussed. Now if US officials will take a second look at those awful farm
subsidies and
tariffs...

(Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2513531.stm )

* * *

"Unilaterally eliminating trade restrictions..."

"In the 21st century the United States could ensure its own
prosperity, set an example for the rest of the world, and create
overwhelming pressure for other countries to follow suit by unilaterally
eliminating the trade restrictions that currently burden American citizens.

"Hong Kong is a good example of how complete free trade can lead to
prosperity. That British colony was just as poor as the rest of China, and
was still suffering the effects of war and the Japanese occupation, when
communists took over the mainland in 1949. The city, with no natural
resources, had complete free trade. And today, while China still is poor,
Hong Kong has the living standard of an industrialized country."

   -- Edward L. Hudgins, Cato Institute

( http://www.freetrade.org/pubs/freetotrade/chap1.html )

* * *

"Good News, Bad News, Unbelievable News" writer James W. Harris
is co-editor of the Liberator Online. His articles have appeared in
numerous magazines and newspapers, including The Nation, Reason, The
Freeman, the National Taxpayers
Union's Dollars and Sense, the Atlanta Constitution, and many more. He has
been a Finalist in the Mencken Awards, given by the Free Press Association
for "Outstanding Journalism in Support of Liberty."
_____________________________________________________________

(Snip...)

PERSUASION POWER POINT # 135
Freedom Reborn
by Michael Cloud

"We are losing," a libertarian activist said to me. "The
Patriot Act. The Department of Homeland Security. The coming US War with
Iraq. The federal government making itself bigger and more powerful.
Government is taking more and more of our liberties. It's hopeless."

I understand how he feels. If I dwell on what the federal government is
doing, I feel discouraged. Sometimes even cynical.

But dwelling on the descending darkness does not bring back the light.

I agree that things look bad for liberty in America. I agree that
government power is on the rise. I agree that things look bleak for the
future.

This is why you and I must redouble our efforts to recruit, educate, and
activate new libertarians.

Why we must reach out. Communicate. Persuade.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to
do nothing," said Edmund Burke.

Why would good men and women do nothing?

Because we believe that nothing can be done. That our quest is impossible.

Because we believe that we are too weak to do what is needed.

Because we believe that there are too few of us to accomplish the task.

Because we allow the political news and Big Government propaganda to discourage us.

Because we discourage ourselves. And quit. Or make half-hearted efforts.

Because we discourage others. And talk them into abandoning their work for liberty.

Discouragement is easy. Quitting is easy. Surrendering is easy.

That easy path leads to tyranny.

I cannot promise victory for liberty. Not in our lifetime. Not in our children's.

I can promise you that liberty is worth working for.

I can promise you that liberty is worth the price.

I can promise you that others have endured far worse. And others have triumphed.

I can promise you that every person you bring into the libertarian movement
increases our chances of victory.

I can promise you that every one of us at the Advocates for Self-Government
will work with you.

For freedom reborn.

******************

Michael Cloud is Persuasion columnist for the Liberator Online and The
Libertarian Communicator. In July 2000, at the Libertarian Party national
convention, Cloud was voted the Most Persuasive Libertarian Communicator in
America and honored with the Thomas Paine Award.

Michael Cloud is creator of "The Essence of Political
Persuasion," the classic 3-tape libertarian communication course,
available exclusively from the Advocates at the *give-away* price of only
$7.50 postpaid. For more information, or to order, click here:
http://www.reliablehost.com/self-gov/persuasion.html

(Snip...)

"May it be to the world... to assume the blessings and security of
self-government." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1821.

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