No. 82 – January 30, 2014 - Pete Seeger Remembered

by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Helen met Pete Seeger for the first time in 1966 near his home in Beacon, New York on the Hudson. Pete was standing on a hay wagon singing and talking to a group of about thirty people about his plan to raise $200,000 to have a boat built to travel up and down the Hudson River. The boat was to be called Clearwater, the name encapsulating the vision of a Hudson cleaned and vibrant, as it flowed along its 400 miles to the Atlantic Ocean.

Helen didn't believe it possible, but soon the money was raised and the Clearwater, built in Maine, cruising the river, stopping at towns along the way which were experiencing the trauma of pollution. Unbridled pollution was destroying fishing and their local economies. Cleaning up the Hudson became one of many shared goals for Pete and Helen, who is a life-long activist for social justice and the environment.

When we talked today Helen shared her memories of Pete, a close friend from that moment in 1966 until his death Monday, January 27, 2014.

In 1970 Helen Carlson and Pete Seeger worked together to raise the consciousness of Americans as the Peace Bell was rung at the first Earth Day, held at the moment of the Spring Equinox. Pete attended and sang at the ceremony regularly from then through last year. And each year Pete was with Helen for her birthday cruise on the Hudson, lighting the occasion with the songs of peace, justice, and care of the Earth, which remain the goals of generations of Americans.

During one of their expeditions on the Clearwater with Helen's children Pete said to her daughter, Janet Carlson, "Be sure not to let schoolwork interfere with your education." Janet remembered the advice, admiring him for it. Helen remembered the pumpkins Pete delivered by wagon along the Hudson and his warmth and sweetness of soul.

Pete learned music from the poorest of the poor in the South while working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement in 1955 in Alabama. Both believed justice would come through loving others as themselves, learning to forgive. With Doctor King, Pete rejected hate and judgment, making it his goal to bring people together past all divides. The cadences in his music carry images which changed us, flowing into minds and hearts through his actions, words and music.

We will not forget.

Indiana House Committee Approves Anti-Drone Bill By A 6-1 Vote

From:  The Liberty Crier 

Today, an Indiana state house committee gave preliminary approval to a bill which would severely restrict the use of drones within the state.

Introduced by Rep. Eric Allan Koch (R-65), House Bill 1009 (HB1009) “Prohibits the use of unmanned aerial vehicles and tracking devices to conduct warrantless searches,” with very limited exceptions.

HB1009 was referred to the State House Committee on Courts and Criminal Code where a hearing was held this morning. After a short discussion, the bill passed by a vote of 6-1. Voting yes were committee chair, Rep. Jud McMillin (R-68), along with Reps. Pierce, McNamara, Harman, Mahan and Rhoads. The lone no vote was cast by Rep. DeLaney (D-86).

 The legislation does include some narrow exceptions to the warrant requirement to allay the fears of law enforcement officials who did not want to be hamstrung in emergency situations when a drone’s use might spell life or death.

Indiana House Committee Approves Anti-Drone Bill By A 6-1 Vote [continued]

Farmers Call For End To Hemp Ban

From:  The Liberty Crier 

By Drew MacKenzie

 

The American Farm Bureau Federation, a powerful and influential farmers’ lobbying group, is demanding the repeal of the classification of industrial hemp as a controlled substance.

The ban, which has been heavily criticized by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, prevents American farmers growing hemp while the United States has been importing products from overseas that derive from hemp.

At the federation’s annual meeting last week in Texas, the group voted to approve a resolution from the Indiana Farm Bureau supporting the de-classification of industrial hemp as a controlled substance under the Drug Enforcement Administration guide lines, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader’s website Kentucky.com.  MORE

Missouri Senate Committee Passes Measure That Would Nullify Federal Gun Laws

From:  The Liberty Crier 

 By Alex Stuckey

JEFFERSON CITY • A measure that would nullify some federal gun control policies was passed out of the Senate General Laws Committee today.

The legislation is a second attempt for sponsor Sen. Brian Nieves, R-Washington. Last year, a similar bill was passed but Republicans didn’t get enough votes to override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto. The veto came because Nixon said portions of the bill were unconstitutional.

Nieves says he’s addressed the major problems with the bill, including changing the amount of time a school protection officer can detain someone to one hour from four hours.  MORE

Nullification Movement Grows As States Challenge Federal Power

From:  The Liberty Crier

By Adam Ulbricht 

 

The battle for power between states and the federal government has been raging since the ink was still wet on the freshly signed U.S. Constitution. The struggle continues as state governments look to take back power they claim is rightfully theirs through a process called nullification.

Although the application of the concept has started to take off more recently, the idea itself dates back to the late 1790s, when Thomas Jefferson and James Madison penned the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, opposing the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Today, a number of nullification bills have popped up in states across the country that addressing a wide range of issues.  MORE

He Has His Pen, But We Have the Constitution!

From:  Roman Buhler

Didn't you just LOVE the President's speech last night?
That speech was the perfect reason for empowering states to force Congress to propose the "Regulation Freedom Amendment" to require that Congress approve major new federal regulations.
The President may have his pen, but WE have the Constitution to make him accountable!
We already have legislative support for the Regulation Freedom Amendment in more than 20 states.
With your help we can build a coalition of leaders in 34 states to force Congress to propose this Amendment by 2015!
Let us know if you or someone you know would like to be more involved in this effort!  We need funds and volunteers now manage our effort in 27 key target states in the coming weeks.
Here is the text of the Regulation Freedom Amendment:
"Whenever one quarter of the Members of the U.S. House or the U.S. Senate transmit to the President their written declaration of opposition to a proposed federal regulation, it shall require a majority vote of the House and Senate to adopt that regulation."
Thanks for your interest!
Roman Buhler
Director, The Madison Coalition
202 255 5000

P.S. Our supporters include TN Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris, ID House Speaker Scott Bedke, Wyoming House Speaker Tom Lubnau, Federalist Society co-founder David McIntosh, Americans for Tax Reform Chair Grover Norquist, American Conservative Union Chair Al Cardenas, former House Appropriations Chair Bob Livingston, former White House Counsel Boyden Gray, RNC Counsel John Ryder, RNC Rules Chair Bruce Ash, former RNC General Counsels David Norcross and Mark Braden, and David Rivkin, Wall Street Journal Columnist and Counsel to the 26 states who sued to overturn Obamacare.

Plunder-Lusting Quislings Seek to Repeal Posse Comitatus

From:   LewRockwell

By William Norman Grigg

January 29, 2014

While visiting the elite Battle Command Training Program at Fort Leavenworth, “I head discussion of the Posse Comitatus Act, which forbids the National Guard to act as a local police force,” reported Robert D. Kaplan in his 1996 book An Empire Wilderness. “The implication was that turbulence within the United States might one day require the act to be repealed.”

During a discussion of the use of the military to suppress domestic terrorism, a Marine major declared: “The minute I heard about Oklahoma City, I knew who did it – rednecks, the kind of guys from southern Idaho.” That officer went on to predict that owing to the presence of such turbulent people “`a time may come when the military will have to go domestic,’” Kaplan related.

At least some of the “rednecks” who reside in southern Idaho agree with that anonymous major’s assessment. A bill before the Idaho State Legislature, HB 367, would effectively abolish the Posse Comitatus Act as it applies to law enforcement in the Gem State by permitting the National Guard to “assist federal and state law enforcement agencies in interdicting the importation of controlled substances” and participating in the officially licensed plunder called “civil asset forfeiture.” When authorized to act as a “state law enforcement agency,” the Guard will be allowed to participate “in the sharing of property seized or forfeited and receive property and revenues…..”

The amendment containing this enhancement of the Guard’s mission, significantly, would be inserted just above an existing provision allowing county sheriffs to enlist the aid of the Guard to deal with “any breach of the peace, tumult, riot, resistance to process of this state, or a state of extreme emergency, or imminent danger thereof….”

Translated into practical terms, this would allow any of the state’s 44 sheriffs to seek the assistance of the National Guard any time they anticipate resistance to a forfeiture action. After all, everybody in Idaho has guns, a fact that has been invoked by police officials across the state to justify the acquisition of combat-grade armored vehicles from the Pentagon. This means that any time law enforcement sets out to steal somebody’s property through “asset forfeiture” – something that was recently done as part of a federal investigation into “illegal” card games at a private residence – there is “imminent danger” of armed resistance.

Republican state representative Linden Bateman of Idaho Falls (which, for the record, is in southern Idaho) told the Idaho Reporter that “There seemed to be no major opposition to this bill” in the Legislature. Gov. Butch Otter has reportedly read and approved the draft measure. No objections have been heard from Idaho’s “constitutional sheriffs” – the officials who resolved to oppose new federal gun restrictions, but whose independence is neutralized by their dependency on federally supported asset forfeiture.

While Pentagon planners and their assets in law enforcement may be haunted by visions of a “redneck” uprising in Idaho, it’s clear that they can count on the support and cooperation of Quislings in the state government.

UPDATE:

Parrish Miller reports that “Rep. Mike Moyle has asked unanimous consent to send the bill back to committee for amending” — which means that it may be dead for this session. In addition, he pointed out that in the original version of this article I mistakenly attributed the quote from Rep. Bateman to Rep. Brandon Hixon. My thanks to Miller for the update, and the correction.

The Best of William Norman Grigg