Heads Up

A SICK POLITICAL TRUTH

The occasion was in honor of the socialist leaning Time magazine's 75th anniversary. So, Time invited a number of well known communists and socialists, including Clinton.

For some reason, Clinton chose to publicly glorify the presidential administration most responsible for trashing our Constitution and encouraging socialism to flourish in the United States. He heaped phrase on FDR, saying Roosevelt was "a master politician, and a magnificent commander-in-chief."

Clinton did not mention, of course, that FDR did more than any American before or since to trash the rights and liberties of the American people. Nor did Clinton mention that Roosevelt could have alerted Pearl Harbor that a sneak attack by the Japanese was eminent, but instead chose to let thousands of Americans die needlessly.

"His life had its fair share of disappointment and failures, but they never broke his spirit, or his faith in God or his fellow citizens. Because he always rose to the occasion, so did we," Clinton continued.

Then, in a very telling example of just how little Clinton and others in Washington understand our Constitution, Clinton said: "More than any other 20th Century American, FDR fulfilled the mandate of our founders."

So, let's see here, Roosevelt sets up dozens of federal agencies to interfere in nearly everything in the lives of the American people, he steals our gold, he allows nearly a third of our Navy to be caught with their pants down and damn near slaughtered, and Billy-boy from Dog Patch thinks FDR "fulfilled the mandate of our founders." No wonder the federal government is so screwed up!

Backing up Clinton in his support of socialism was a real communist who at least admits what he is: The former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev never seems to go home where he belongs. Instead, he runs around the United States looking for hand outs. He's a failed leader of a failed ideology but nevertheless, the socialists of this country love him.

"In Russia, he is held in high regard, perhaps no less than in this country," Gorbachev said about Roosevelt. "In Russia, we appreciate his New Deal."

No doubt! All those federal regulatory agencies, each complete with it's own little politburo, is the envy of all communists. In fact, this has been exactly our point for many years. That is the communist system, and has no business existing in the United States. If we could find some real leadership, people who would honor our Constitution, the whole system would be immediately scraped, our tax burden would be halved and freedom would again flourish.

Then, in a fit of idiotic rhetoric that unfortunately rings true in part, Gorbachev compared Roosevelt's legacy to the populist accomplishments of Gandhi and Lenin.

So, when people ask what went wrong in Washington, the answer is easy: it's the Constitution. Nobody uses it anymore. Because, when even avowed communists can somewhat accurately compare modern day American presidents to Lenin -- and not even be criticized by a sitting President looking on -- one would think a very loud wake up call is in order.

A LETTER TO REPUBLICAN OFFICIALS

The Republican Party has been making some huge gains around the country. It's about time, too. The Democrats just about made us a socialist nation. But, to tell you the truth, I liked the Republican Party a lot better when we were the underdog.

Anyone remember our platform on lower taxes, downsizing government, repealing laws and regulations and supporting more personal freedom? It seems to have vanished.

Government grew at an alarming rate, regulations were promulgated by volumes, and some of the most humanly oppressive laws in this country's history were passed. All this happened under a Republican watch.

Our basic privacy has been stripped at every turn. You have regulated the personal use of our own money; required we present "papers" if we wish to travel; censored radio, television, music, and even what we can say to each other in public. Then, you increased the authority of police to violate our most basic rights, and even let them "arrest" our property at will. Government agencies have become limited dictatorships, the courts are an unmitigated shambles and no longer available to people who are not millionaires. State and federal governments even scheduled a takeover of our local school districts, and now our children no longer learn.

Whatever happened to freedom? Some Republicans seem to think they can legalize morality, legislate virtue and demand obedience. It seems as though Republicans are no longer tolerant of differences of opinion, religion or lifestyles. Yet, most elected Republicans have forgotten the simplest of rules, like making English our common language of record.

Republicans now pander to the script of the socialists. Last year was the legislative year of the child, this year, apparently, the year of the woman. When, I might ask, will the year of the Constitution return?

And therein lies the true reason for my letter: Our Constitution. Your constituents want it reinstated. Most Americans want their personal freedom returned. That means that elected officials all over the country must start, not just with a moratorium on new law, but with a wholesale repealing of thousands of state and federal laws, rules and regulations.

Because, ladies and gentlemen, fellow Republicans, if you look around a little you may notice something happening. 'We the People,' those of us of the vast grass roots throughout the country, are angry. And, you are in office.

We waited for that Republican platform to be implemented. Nothing happened. Rather, things got worse. So, we are becoming organized. Groups are now in place in every state of the Union. And, they all have one specific thing in common: All members want each and every personal freedom and liberty guaranteed to them under the Constitution returned. Not the current politically debauched interpretation of our freedoms and liberties, either. Rather, those so aptly described in the writing of the Founding Fathers.

And, we shall have real freedom once again. Remember the so called "silent majority"? Well, this time, you are about to learn of the "vocal" majority. It was once said that thirty good party activists in each state could make a president. What would you think about a couple thousand freedom loving activists in each state? Consider it, cause they're already in place. Some of them, of course, are also Republicans. So you elected and appointed officials better take notice, because we're talking amongst ourselves and getting organized.

This is the information age. A true account of your speeches and your voting records are at our fingertips. We can now research and debunk each and every campaign claim a politician makes, and have the correct information out within the hour. Those politicians not obviously supporting the individual rights of the people with action and deed are about to be savaged on the Internet, over talk radio and in thousands of local newspapers nationwide.

So you see, fellow Republicans, that old platform supporting individual rights and liberties, and calling for a drastic reduction in government, is not dead. That, and more, will be aggressively supported by a very wide range of Americans throughout the country. So, let this be a word to the wise: if you're not at the head of that parade early on, get out of the way.

Watch for the changes. And remember, if you are not with us, you do not support our Constitution, or agree with your oath of office. Therefore, changes will be coming to your district soon.

POLITICS AND COMPUTERS

It wasn't too many years ago that many of us computer nuts were using those hot TRS 80s with those super-fast Z80 processors. Unfortunately, it at first seemed that about the only thing the Trash 80 was good for was to learn to program in Basic. Then, there came a time when we had nothing to do in my laboratory for a couple weeks, so I brought mine in to play with. A forward thinking physician and surgeon (currently a Doctor- Professor) asked if I could program that thing to do math formulas. Basic did that fine, and the Z80 calculated in a flash. So, two weeks later, we had all the calculations used for patient profiles in the ICU and CCU written into code in an easy to use format and were occupied idiot proofing our new software for the interns and residents to use. And thus came the first truly useful computer to the hospital Intensive Care setting.

But really, our new system left a lot to be desired. It actually did little more than replace the hand-held calculator. We wanted a more sophisticated presentation, with graphics. We wanted automatic input from other electronic equipment and the laboratory computers. And we needed a lot more speed.

K-Pro fixed some of those problems with their CPM based computer. That was a great little business computer, but bordered on mediocre for what we had in mind. Regardless, it was a step up, so I started rewriting all our code in C, and adding a few bells and whistles we wanted.

Suddenly, IBM made a major breakthrough with their 8088 Personal Computer. Actually, IBM had that computer assembled for quite some time, but it wouldn't do anything. It did not have the "operating system" code available to make it do work. So, the "computer" would not compute.

Now comes a young man named Bill Gates. Gates did what Big Blue could not (or did not) do. Bill Gates produced an operating system for the 8088 Personal Computer. Bill Gates and IBM then made a deal. IBM will sell the hardware, and Bill Gates' new company, Microsoft, would sell the operating system.

My first Personal Computer, with 64K of RAM, two floppy disk drives, a color monitor, a word processor, and a printer, cost $5,000. That price included Microsoft's DOS 1.2 and Flight Simulator.

The era of the Personal Computer then took off like a rocket! As part of the operating system package, Microsoft provided Basic to program with and the Edline text editor to control some aspects of how the computer booted up. Most of the actual working software was purchased from other companies. Other operating systems also became available, but Microsoft's DOS was always the easiest to use and usually ran trouble-free right out of the box. It also (back then) came with great documentation.

Few of us paid much attention to other Microsoft software until Windows became available. That was when Microsoft Word, or Word for Windows, caught up with what people wanted in a word processor. That was quickly follow by a seamless working environment called Microsoft Office, which included most of what any business office would want.

The problem with Microsoft, if there is one, is that it grew too fast and it's products work too good. Microsoft actually took the "computing" out of computing and changed our computers into necessary tools. I have not written a line of code, or even had a compiler installed on one of my computers, for over five years. The days of blending C and Prolog code into fancy databases with really hot graphics are all but over for the home computer enthusiast. It's silly to write the code when you can probably find software to do what you want free (or very inexpensively) on the Internet.

And that's where we are today, participating in the information age. Rather than sitting alone, scheming to get our code to work properly so we can use our slick software creation for something we probably don't need to do anyway, computer enthusiasts are now busy communicating with a world of faceless others in cyberspace. But even that is quickly changing. Microsoft Windows, and most new computers, already work together to support bi-directional voice and video signals. Even multiparty conferencing capabilities are available that include bi-directional audio, slow-scan video and graphics.

By the time of the next presidential election, most people on the Internet will have fancy e-mail with full graphics capabilities. Private conferencing among groups will also be rather common.

Bill Gates did not give us the Internet. But, Bill Gates did make available, and affordable, some of the tools necessary to take full advantage of the information age. And perhaps that is why these life-tenured politicians in Washington are becoming so interested. The Lords and Ladies on the Hill are not quite sure what we are doing here on the Internet. Some of them, however, are starting to realize that it could drastically impact on their future.

PRIVACY PROTECTION ACT

Below is Ron Paul's February 25 address to the House concerning H.R. 3261.
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Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Privacy Protection Act of 1998, which forbids the use of the Social Security number for any purpose not directly related to the administration of the Social Security system. The Social Security number was created solely for use in administering the Social Security system. However, today the Social Security number is used as an identifier for numerous federal programs. Unless the use of the Social Security number is restricted, it will soon become a national identification number by which the federal government can easily keep track of all vital information regarding American citizens.

Anyone who doubts that we are well on the way to using the Social Security number as an universal identifier need only consult 1996's welfare reform bill, which forces business to report the Social Security number of every new employee to the federal government so it may be recorded in a national data base.

Another example of the abuse of the Social Security number is a provision in tax law requiring a spouse paying alimony furnish the IRS with the Social Security number of the spouse receiving alimony.

These are not isolated incidents; in fact, since the Creation of the Social Security number in 1934 there have been almost 40 congressionally-authorized uses of the Social Security number as an identification number for non-Social Security programs! Abuse of the Social Security system also occurs at the state level. Mr. Speaker, in many states one cannot get a driver's license, apply for a job, or even receive a birth certificate for one's child, without presenting their Social Security number to a government official, and just X weeks ago 210 of my colleagues voted to allow States to require citizens to show their Social Security number in order to vote. Since the Social Security number is part of a federal program created by Congress, it is Congress' responsibility to ensure it is not used to violate the privacy of America's citizens.

Perhaps the most disturbing abuses of the Social Security number is the Congressionally-authorized rule forcing parents to get a Social Security number for their newborn children in order to claim them as a dependent. Mr. Speaker, forcing parents to register their newborn children with the state is more like something out of the nightmare of George Orwell than the dreams of a free Republic that inspired the nation's founders.

Unless the abuses of the Social Security number is stopped, Americans will soon have a de facto national identification number, which would provide the federal government the ability to track all citizens from cradle to grave. The drafters of the Constitution would be horrified if they knew that the federal government would have the ability to set up a universal identifier and every newborn baby had to be assigned a number by the federal government. I therefore urge my colleagues to protect America's freedom by cosponsoring the Privacy Protection Act of 1998.

COPY AND SEND TO CONGRESS

Dear Congressman ______________:
The (name of organization) has a deep and passionate interest in Kentucky, her institutions and her sovereignty. As such, we are intent on the passage of Helen Chenoweth's bill, H.R. 1842. This is a simple straightforward bill which is unambiguous in its intent to maintain the Constitutional sovereignty of our individual states and the county and municipal governments contained within.

The American Heritage Rivers Initiative is a flagrant attempt to strip individual state, county and city governments of their Constitutional powers, placing them in the hands of an unelected federal bureaucracy. As citizens of Kentucky, the (organization) DEMANDS that the AHRI be denied, as outlined in H.R. 1842

As the Congressional Representative for all of us, we insist that you cosponsor and vote passage for H.R. 1842.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter and we in turn offer our continued support for you as our representative in Congress.

/s/ (Name, title, organization)