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Former NSA Official: US Now Living Under Soft Tyranny

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller The Obama administration’s targeting of journalists and their sources is an assault on the First Amendment, a former National Security Agency official and prominent whistleblower says.

“[R]eporters have shared with me privately that some of their most trusted sources within government are increasingly afraid to speak with them, even off-the-record, for fear that they will be monitored and surveilled,” Thomas Drake, a former senior executive of the National Security Agency and a whistleblower who was prosecuted by the Obama administration, told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview.

“That’s self-censorship,” he said.

Drake explained to TheDC that he sees a “soft tyranny” enveloping the United States through the federal government’s targeting of journalists and their sources.

Such a fear of speaking to the press, he said, interferes with the freedom of association — recognized in the First Amendment as an essential component of free speech.

Read more from this story HERE.

Tyranny Is No Longer ‘Lurking’

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Photo Credit: Barack Obama/flickrGiven last week’s revelation that the IRS targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, it’s worth recalling President Obama’s Ohio State University commencement address. The president decried “voices” warning “that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner.”

It’s no longer lurking. It’s here.

Testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee by the outgoing acting IRS commissioner, Steve Miller, as well as numerous statements by individuals claiming they have been harassed and intimidated by IRS agents, reveal a government agency out of control, or more precisely, under the control of political hacks. It’s doubtful this was a freelance operation. J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, testified he knew as early as June 2012 that the IRS was targeting conservatives, but did nothing to stop it during the presidential campaign. Who else knew?

The delay in tax exemption approval prevented some conservative groups from donating money to the Romney campaign or to groups supporting his candidacy. The IRS even asked one tea party group in Richmond to identify all of their financial donors and volunteers.

There is a simple way to restrain the IRS so this type of intrusion doesn’t happen again: get rid of it. That’s what Steve Forbes proposed in his run for president in 1996 and 2000. So did former presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). Forbes proposed a flat tax of 17 percent and a simple tax code. Individuals could file their tax returns on a post card.

Read more from this story HERE.

Yes, the Obama Administration’s Actions Amount to Tyranny

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What the Obama Administration has done with the IRS is nothing short of tyranny.

Let’s begin by stating the obvious. If government were a business, and subject to economic realities and the consequences of its ignoring them, it would have been liquidated long ago — its remaining assets of value would have been reclaimed by its creditors and shareholders (both of which are the American taxpayer), and its market share of consumers (also the American taxpayer, and those they are gracious enough to financially support) would be sought by other, more efficient businesses.

But let’s pretend for a moment that it is a business. And let’s pretend that this business had engaged not only in unethical practices, but illegal practices, completely betraying the trust of its shareholders and customers and and disavowing the very foundational principles upon which its business is predicated.

The IRS, an agency under the control of this government that Obama assures youngsters is no threat to liberty whatsoever, has done exactly that. They have apologized for selectively harassing, excessively scrutinizing, and denying benefits to conservative groups these last years.

Of particular note, the Treasury Department’s inspector general J. Russell George disclosed on Friday that the Obama administration officials were well aware of his auditing the IRS for its political screening policies in June 2012. Convenient as the IRS’s targeting of Democrats’ enemies was, the Obama administration chose not to reveal any of this knowledge to the public in the 2012 election year, yet it now feigns shock and indignation at the prospect that the IRS could have acted irresponsibly and illegally…

Obama is reasonably implicated in this crime, and this crime is nothing short of tyranny.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pope Francis Urges Global Leaders to End ‘Tyranny’ of Money

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Photo Credit: Reuters He said free-market capitalism had created a “tyranny” and that human beings were being judged purely by their ability to consume goods.

Money should be made to “serve” people, not to “rule” them, he said, calling for a more ethical financial system and curbs on financial speculation.

Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow “absolute autonomy”, in order to provide “for the common good”.

The gap between rich and poor was growing and the “joy of life” was diminishing in many developed countries, the Argentinian Pope said, two months after he was elected as the successor to Benedict XVI.

“While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling,” said Francis, who as archbishop of Buenos Aires visited slums, opted to live in a modest flat rather than an opulent Church residence and went to work by bus.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Attacks Liberty-Minded Americans During University Commencement Speech (+video)

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Photo Credit: senorgloryIn an effort to infect another generation with his socialist views, Obama preached at Ohio State University’s Class of 2013, admonishing them to reject liberty-minded Americans who fight to “gum up the works” of government or who warn of impending tyranny.

He goes on to suggest that these bad people are actually fighting representative government because they really believe “self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.” Obama concludes that, fortunately, “we understand that this democracy is ours.”

Obama, of course, knows that the Ruling Class has supplanted the people as the power-brokers of the nation. And he also knows – and fears – that the liberty-minded patriots in this nation are seeking to return government to the Rule of Law and oversight of the People.

Obama and his elitist allies – in both parties – are doing everything they can to prevent this type of populist uprising in the next election cycle.

So how do people like Obama fight these threatening forces? You tell the biggest lie about them that you can: that they are enemies of the very liberty that they are trying to preserve.

Unfortunately, this type of dishonesty is exactly what we’ve come to expect from the political class:

[Transcript – Obama attacks liberty-minded Americans:

“Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems.

Some of these voices also do their best to gum up the works.

They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner.

You should reject these voices.

Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted . . . we understand that this democracy is ours.”]

Hitler Survivor Condemns Gun Control, Says ‘Keep Your Guns and Buy More!’

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Kitty Werthmann was born in Austria, and lived there for seven years under Hitler’s brutal regime, and after World War II, she also lived three years under Soviet communist occupation. Needless to say, Mrs. Werthmann is someone who has an acute awareness of how media distorts things and tyranny comes to power. Mrs. Werthmann, not only says that the media was wrong about how Hitler came to power, but she says that “In the beginning, Hitler didn’t look like, or talk like a monster at all. He talked like an American politician.”

She says that the story of Hitler overthrowing governments and people in order to come to power just simply isn’t true, but rather the Austrian people elected Hitler with 98% of the vote at the ballot box. Mrs. Werthmann then goes on to say that the Austrian people had guns, but the government began to say that they were dangerous, so they began to implement gun registration. Then she said this was followed by turning in their weapons to the police station in order to cut down on crime, and if citizens didn’t… there would be capital punishment.

Mrs. Werthmann says that the dictatorship, “didn’t happen over night, but it took 5 years, gradually, little by little, to escalate to a dictatorship.”

She then goes on to say that, “When the people fear the government, that’s tyranny, but when the government fears the people, that’s liberty.”

As a Nazi survivor, what is her advice to us… “Keep your guns, keep your guns and buy more guns.”

Watch video here:

Here is a much longer video where Mrs. Werthmann gives even more background on what happened in Austria and Germany under Hitler:

Finally, here is Mrs. Werthmann’s Camp America speech, given in Howard Lake, MN:

In First Diplomatic Address, Pope Francis Decries ‘Tyranny Of Relativism’

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Photo Credit: breitbart

In his first address on the world’s affairs to diplomats accredited to the Holy See, Pope Francis was very clear about one thing: no one should assume that because he is devoted to the poor and the goal of peace in the world, that he deviates from the substance of the message of his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

On Friday, the newly elected pontiff expressed serious concern for the “spiritual poverty” of the world as represented by a rejection of both God and objective standards of morality.

Borrowing a phrase from Benedict, Pope Francis told representatives from 180 nations that he rejects the “tyranny of relativism,” which, he said, “makes everyone his own criterion and endangers the coexistence of peoples.” Francis said that while he praised the efforts of those who “dedicate themselves to helping the sick, orphans, the homeless and all the marginalized,” he was equally concerned about the “spiritual poverty of our time, which afflicts the so-called richer countries particularly seriously.”

The pontiff asserted that the world cannot attain the goal of his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, to build world peace, without truth. Referring to the “dictatorship of relativism,” and the importance of clear moral standards, Francis said, “There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion.”

Francis said that in choosing his new name he was evoking St. Francis of Assisi, a familiar figure to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Reminding the diplomats that the word “pontiff” means “bridge-builder,” the pope said that he hoped to create “real spaces of authentic fraternity” between peoples and cultures. “In this work, the role of religion is fundamental,” Francis said.

Read more from this story HERE.

America Is Under The Tyranny Of Corrupt Big City Political Machines

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Democrats are fighting tooth and nail, any efforts to clean up our election system.

Photo Credit: Daquella manera

Just the simple act of proving you are an American citizen to vote, is being fought all of the way up to the Supreme Court by the Obama administration, in its attempt to thwart Arizona’s voter ID laws.

The simple requirement to show identification when you register to vote/ vote is also being branded as unfair and racist by democrats

Is there anything more important to a democracy than ensuring the election system is being conducted fairly? Fair elections are the very heart and soul of a democracy.

If the elections are rigged, or manipulated, a democracy can no longer be called a democracy. It becomes a tyranny ruled by those who corrupt the election. As Joseph Stalin said: It is not so important who votes, what is important is who counts the votes

Recently it was revealed Florida uncovered an attempt to hack into its elections and hijack 2,500 absentee voter pamphlets. The intrusion was discovered and blocked before the ballots were sent out, but is this just the tip of the iceberg? See the complete story in Tech News World.

Election officials are saying this is the first documented case of online voter hacking. But is this just the first one they found? How many others were done successfully and election officials have no clue about? Evidently it is quite simple to gain entry/hack into many election systems electronically; some don’t even have passwords for entry.

Fox News has been doing an excellent ongoing investigation into voter fraud in our country and the results are disturbing. Time after time, it is proving out where there’s smoke, there is voter fraud fire. What Fox News is discovering about our elections. See stories

A Cincinnati Ohio poll worker is being charged with voting 6 times in the last presidential election. This is a poll worker, someone who is trusted to watch over our elections. What else did she do to throw the election? See story here.

This poll worker was one of 19 others in just this one county who is under investigation for vote fraud. “I’m outraged, and every voter, regardless of political affiliation, should be outraged,” said Hamilton County Board of Elections member Alex Triantafilou, who is also chairman of the county Republican Party. “It causes folks to have real doubts about the fabric of our very democratic process, and it’s dangerous.

Would this be uncovered if there wasn’t a member of the opposite party to raise an alarm and start an investigation?

Most of Americas big cities have been dominated by the democrat party for years. One party rule engenders corruption, especially if that party oversees most aspects of the election process. The big cities are the population centers of the state, it is usually a huge hurdle for the rest of the state to overcome that advantage. Sometimes it comes down to a few votes in just a few counties to determine where all of that states presidential delegates will go.

Many years ago someone confessed to me towards the end of his life, that in his younger days he had been a player in the manipulation of votes in one of the largest cities in America. He was part of an organized operation that threw out the contents of ballot boxes and filed them with their ballots, in order to assure their party prevailed. He felt guilt and shame many years later, but at the time he felt he was doing the right thing for his city and country….Probably the same way the Ohio poll worker felt when she voted for Obama 6 times in the last election.

When democrats say there is little, or minor vote fraud in the country, they are “misspeaking.” In one big city, Philadelphia, some poll workers actually threw out members of the opposite party sent to observe voting practices in their precincts. How can we have trust in the outcome? Pennsylvania is a key state in presidential elections.

With the advent of electronic voting and counting, it not only makes it easier to manipulate our elections, it almost guarantees it, especially when you hear the lax protections in place to safeguard the systems.

First we need to clean up our nations voter rolls, get all of the dead, non existent and non citizens off the rolls who are voting. All of this should be done on a local level done under the close observation of both political parties. All registration of voters needs to be accomplished using verifiable identification.

Since absentee/electronic voting is the easiest way to manipulate/rig elections, these should be scrapped and we should require all elections be done at polling precincts using paper ballots that require to be hand counted and securely tallied….closely monitored by members of both parties.

States should also look at proportionally awarding delegates in presidential races, this will help negate the power of big city political machines that dominate an entire state.

Sadly, perhaps its time to emulate other countries who have had problems with corrupt elections: After voting dip the index finger of the voter in purple ink.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

The Tyranny Before Us

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At a recent dinner party I had the opportunity to ask an elderly acquaintance a question I thought she was uniquely qualified to answer. You see, she grew up in Germany in the 1930’s just as Adolph Hitler came to power. She was injured during the Allied bombing of her home and then married an American soldier whereupon she settled in America.

I asked her, “Katherine, do you see any similarities between Hitler’s Germany in the 1930’s and America today?” My question prompted a swift, if not indelicate, kick under the table from the hostess, a dear friend. Fortunately, Katherine is a bit hard of hearing so my gaffe went unanswered, or at least ignored. The hostess then pulled me aside and began to explain the ‘delicacies’ to me.

You see, to this day Katherine adores Adolph Hitler. Furthermore, many if not most Germans of her vintage do so as well. I was shocked! Didn’t Katherine and her fellow German octogenarians understand that everyone is supposed to hate Hitler… everyone?!

My hostess, now flanked by her husband, explained further. Hitler in the 1930’s, and even after his death, was extremely popular. He did many great and good things for a nation suffering terribly and needlessly under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. He built roads, bridges and hospitals. He put people back to work while he rebuilt the economy. In less than ten years he accomplished the miraculous … even while he began to commit the unspeakable.

With my indiscretion now mercifully behind me I realized I had just experienced a teachable moment. That is, a tyrant so universally reviled for committing such horrific acts could actually be revered by the kind, decent, and normal man or woman next door. But how could they be so fooled? How could they witness such evil and still admire the author of it? Especially with over sixty years of hindsight.

The answer is remarkably simple; Adolph Hitler was not always a tyrant. As he rose to political power his vision for a better Germany lifted his nation from the depths of a severe depression and the humiliation of defeat. But more importantly, he gave his countrymen hope for better future while he returned to them their pride in their homeland, the pride they so passionately desired.

Tyrants are not uniformly evil. They are capable of great good and small kindnesses. They smile, they laugh and they love their children. But eventually they embrace the evil which defines their tyranny, and then those who gave them their power begin to pay a terrible price.

First a tyrant tells you he cares for you, then he presumes to think for you, then he simply tells you what to do. This is the essence of tyranny.

Then, those who presume to question his methods are ridiculed and then silenced. Those who resist his usurpations are imprisoned and finally eliminated… and all for the expressed good of society. Mankind has witnessed this progression time and again since the beginning of time.

No nation, no people are immune to the temptations which empower a tyrant and blind them to his evils. When conditions are ripe the right man with the right image saying just the right things can sweep to power with surprisingly little effort… and even less scrutiny. Indeed, America itself is not immune to the Siren’s call of the ‘Great Man’ promising prosperity ahead in exchange for more power… his power. If Germany, which gave the world Luther, Bach and the most educated citizenry in the world can succumb to the wiles of a Hitler, so too can Americans relinquish just a bit more liberty for the mere promise of security and prosperity.

I believe the potential for tyranny lives in each of us, waiting for opportunity to beckon. That is why it is so necessary for each of us to remain vigilant for the tyrant-to-be walking amongst us. He won’t be sporting horns or a long red tail. He will be handsome to most and charming to the rest. He will be articulate in speech and well dressed. He will always be pleasant to the eye and ear.

And he will be recognized for what he truly is early on by only those few who are inclined to remember history so as not to relive it. Others, less wise, will be deceived immediately and perpetually. They will disregard the harsh lessons of history and cling to the vague promises of the here-and-now.

Now to the question before us. Do I believe President Obama has the capacity to be a tyrant? Most certainly. He is no more immune to the temptations of ultimate power than the rest of us. And as he seeks to find “reasonable” steps to address the ills of our nation, the concerns about his understanding of the Founder’s intent begin to pile up.

This brings me to my conclusion. I am not so concerned here with tyrants themselves but with how they come to be. How did China, with more centuries as an advanced civilization than any other, inflict upon itself, and the world, Chairman Mao? How did Russia permit Stalin as its brutal leader? And Germany… Hitler? Italy, Mussolini?

I believe that a tyrant must have four conditions extant for him to fulfill his ruinous destiny. One, a compliant and sympathetic press. Two, a supportive or subjugated legislative branch. Three, a powerful police force which swears fealty to the tyrant himself. And four, an unarmed or significantly under armed citizenry. Of course, it is critical to note that if the press were to operate unencumbered by its own biased ideology or by the tyrant himself, conditions two through four simply could not survive. Nonetheless, at the end of the the day the tyrant can, and will, permit no meaningful opposition. Thankfully, not all four of these conditions currently exist in America… not yet.

As America struggles through its current crisis the very human hope for a better future becomes overwhelming, sometimes clouding judgment. And it is in this hope that danger for our republic lurks. For when a nation puts its hope in nothing greater than a man that nation stands on the precipice, blind to the danger just one step ahead. That is why America was built not on the personality of men but on the principles good men and women ponder and articulate… principles free men and women cherish and contend for.

America has survived some 240 years through great tragedy and trauma but it has always rested on those principles. But today I worry whether those principles are even recognized let alone exercised, as we sacrifice our citizenship to the lust for cheap labor, our sovereignty on the altar of climate change and our prosperity to our own greed and ignorance.

So then, absent a return to the principles upon which the American experiment was founded, and by which it once flourished, it will continue to flounder and eventually fail, both as a nation and as a people. Then, we Americans will elect a tyrant who promises prosperity even while his tyranny consumes us… and we will have only ourselves to blame.

Mark Levin’s Message to Conservatives for Obama’s Second Term — Fight!

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As President Barack Obama prepares for his inauguration, Breitbart News sat down with radio talk show host Mark Levin, the bestselling author of the blockbusters Liberty and Tyranny, Ameritopia, Men in Black, and Rescuing Sprite. Levin painted a stark picture of the reality facing the country – the rise of tyranny – but he also offered hope in one word: “fight.”

“I don’t think Obama knows exactly what he’s going to go for in his second term,” Levin said, “as he will look for opportunities to exploit as events unfold. I am sure they’ve drawn up a partial a list, and we already know that it includes, but is not limited to, gun control; attacks on the First Amendment such as religious liberty; amnesty for illegal aliens; union expansion; institutionalizing Obamacare; institutionalizing voter corruption; de-industrialization via the EPA; destroying the capitalist-based economy via tax increases, smothering regulations, massive deficit spending, and endless borrowing; and hollowing out our military; etc. This will effect all of us. It will do extreme damage to the nation in many respects. I think Obama sees himself as correcting historic wrongs in this country, as delivering the fruits of the labor of other people to people who he believes have historically been put upon. I think there’s a lot of perverse thinking that goes on in his mind, radical left-wing thinking. He was indoctrinated with Marx and Alinksy propaganda. You not only see it in his agenda but in his words — class warfare; degrading successful people unless, of course, they help finance his elections, causes, and organizations; pretending to speak for the so-called middle class when, in fact, he is destroying their jobs, savings, and future. Obama’s war on our society is intended to be an onslaught in which the system is overwhelmed.”

How to fight that agenda? Levin said the answer certainly doesn’t lie in the current Republican Party leadership. “I think the Republican Party, its apparatus, its so-called leadership, the parasitic consultants, represent an institution that is tired, old, almost decrepit, full of cowardice and vision-less. It has abandoned the Declaration of Independence and any serious defense of constitutional republicanism. The Democrat Party is now a radical 1960s party; it’s the anti-Constitution, anti-capitalism, anti-individual party. It largely controls the federal government, including the massive bureaucracy and much of the judiciary — what I call the permanent branches of the federal government. The Democrat Party represents the federal government, and the federal government expands the power of the Democrat Party. They’re appendages of each other. On the other hand, the GOP today stands for capitulation, timidity, delusion — so mostly nothing. Republicans may speak of the Constitution, limited government, low taxes, etc., but what have they done about them? Next to nothing if not nothing. Even when Bush 43 was president and the Republicans controlled Congress. What did they do? They went on a spending binge. They expanded Medicare, the federal role in local education, drove up the debt, etc. Meanwhile, we are lectured by putative Republicans like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Tom Ridge, and a conga line of others trashing often viciously NOT Obama and what the Democrats are doing to our nation, but conservatives, constitutionalists, and tea party activists who are the only people left standing for liberty against tyranny in this country.”

But, said Levin, the answer isn’t to start a third party – “The problem is a practical one. If we go third party, I can see the Democrats winning elections for a generation. Given the radicalized character of that party, that would seal our fate, and the fate of our children and grandchildren to, as Reagan put it, 1000 years of darkness. The day may come, perhaps soon, when abandoning the GOP for a new party is the best way to deal with events and stop the rise of tyranny. I think the answer at this moment is for conservatives to retake the Republican Party. Reagan did it, and Reagan was opposed by the Republican establishment every step of the way, including the Bush family. But this is a constant fight, just as fighting the Democrats is a constant fight. After the Reagan presidency, Bush 41 and Bush 43, who’d opposed the Reagan Revolution, immediately dragged the nation back into the Republican mush. In fact, they sought to distance themselves from Reagan and his achievements, using such silly phrases as “a kinder and gentler” conservatism or “compassionate conservatism,” as if all the opportunities, wealth, jobs, and enterprises Reagan’s policies launched were neither kind nor compassionate. There is an intransigence in the Republican Party that sabotages and obstructs those who have answers for this nation based on our founding principles. And so we had a brief eight-year period where Reagan showed us the way and created a foundation on which future Republican presidents could build, and they haven’t. They invoke Reagan because he is beloved by the American people, but they reject his principles and policies. Keep in mind, George W. Bush was the most profligate spender in world history until Obama came along; the Tea Party grew out of the last months of Bush 43 and the early months of the Obama presidency. Yet Bush administration staffers are everywhere today: the media, advising candidates, leading fundraisers, etc. And they arrogantly and condescendingly lecture conservatives about responsible, moderate governance. They also cheerlead for more establishment candidates, like John McCain, Mitt Romney, and the like, who are not only sure losers, but have no grasp of the urgency of our times and the principled agenda necessary to address it. Meanwhile, the Reagan and traditional conservatives, the constitutionalists and the tea party leaders, are all but unheard and unseen on TV, even some of our favorite outlets.”

Read more from this story HERE.