Monday, March 28, 2011

Why Martial Law Cannot Happen in USA

So this weekend I was surfing youtube and came across:

US v. Emerson, Fifth Circuit, Case No. 99-10331:
1. Testimony of Norman Olson of the Michigan Militia; and,
2. John Trochman and Bob Fletcher of the Militia of Montana before the Senate Subcommittee on Anti-Terrorism, June 15, 1995.

I found this to be very interesting and thought I would put up Mr. Olson statement. Another interesting thing I see is that a couple Senators that where there, seem to have made a career out of politics, Arlen Specter and Dianne Feinstein.

Not only does the Constitution specifically allow the formation of a Federal Army, it also recognizes the inherent right of the people to form militia. Further, it recognizes that the citizen and his personal armaments are the foundation of the militia. The arming of the militia is not left to the state but to the citizen. However, should the state choose to arm its citizen militia, it is free to do so (bearing in mind the Constitution is not a document limiting the citizen, but rather limiting the power of government). But should the state fail to arm its citizen militia, the right of the people to keep and bear arms becomes the source of the guarantee that the state will not be found defenseless in the presence of a threat to its security. It makes no sense whatsoever to look to the Constitution of the United States or that or any state for permission to form a citizen militia since logically, the power to permit is also the power to deny. If brought to its logical conclusion in this case, government may deny the citizen the right to form a militia. If this were to happen, the state would assert itself as the principle of the contract making the people the agents. Liberty then would depend on the state's grant of liberty. Such a concept is foreign to American thought.

While the Second Amendment to the US Constitution acknowledges the existence of state militia and recognizes their necessity for the security of a free state; and, while it also recognizes that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, the Second Amendment is not the source of the right to form a militia nor to keep and bear arms. Those rights existed in the states prior to the formation of the federal union. In fact, the right to form militia and to keep and bear arms existed from antiquity. The enumeration of those rights in the Constitution only underscores their natural occurrence and importance

According to the Tenth Amendment, ultimate power over the militia is not delegated to the Federal government by the Constitution nor to the states, but resides with the people. Consequently, the power of the militia remains in the hands of the people. Again, the fundamental function of the militia in society remains with the people. Therefore, the Second Amendment recognizes that the militia's existence and the security of the state rests ultimately in the people who volunteer their persons to constitute the militia and their arms to supply its firepower. The primary defense of the state rests with the citizen militia bearing its own arms. Fundamentally, it is not the state that defends the people, but the people who defend the state.

The second line of defense of the state consists in the statutory organization known as the National Guard. Whereas the National Guard is solely the creation of the statutory law, the militia derives its existence from the inherent inalienable rights which existed before the Constitution and whose importance are such that they merited specific recognition in that document. While the National Guard came into existence as a result of legislative activity, the militia existed before there was a nation or a constitutional form of government. The militia consisting of people owning and bearing personal weapons is the very authority out of which the United States Constitution grew. This point must be emphasized. Neither the citizen's militia nor the citizen's private arsenal can be an appropriate subject of federal regulation. It was the armed militia of the American colonies whose own efforts ultimately led to the establishment of the United States of America! While some say that the right to keep and bear arms is granted to Americans by the Constitution, just the opposite is true. The Federal government itself is the child of the armed citizen. We the people are the parent of the child we call government. You, Senators, are part of the child that We the People gave life to. The increasing amount of Federal encroachment into our lives indicates the need for parental corrective action. In short, the Federal government needs a good spanking to make it behave.

One other important point needs to be made. Since the Constitution is the limiting document upon the government, the government cannot become greater than the granting power, that is the servant cannot become greater than his master. Therefore, should the Chief Executive or other branch of government, or all branches together act to suspend the Constitution under a rule of martial law, all power granted to government would be canceled and defer back to the granting power, the people. Martial law shall not be possible in this country as long as the people recognize the Bill of Rights as inalienable.

Since the power of self defense and the defense of the state is ultimately vested in the people, there is no possible way that a Governor or the Chief Executive of the United States, or any legislative body can "outlaw" the citizen militia for to do so would rob inherent power from the people. If that were to happen, our entire form of government would cease.

Historically, we have found that the Governor's militia, that is the National Guard, is intended to reduce the need for the citizen militia. Simply, if the National Guard did it's job in securing the state, the citizen militia would not emerge. That it has emerged so dramatically seems to indicate that the people do not feel secure. Simply stated, the growing threat of centralized Federal government is frightening America, hence the emergence of the citizen militia. When government is given back to the people at the lowest level, the citizen militia will return to its natural place, resident within the body of the people. Civil war and revolution can be avoided by re-investing governing power to the people.

To summarize: Citizen militia are historic lawful entities predating constitutions. Such militia are "grandfathered" into the very system of government they created. The Constitution grants no right to form militia, but merely recognize the existing natural right of all people to defend and protect themselves. The governments created out of well armed and free people are to be constantly obedient to the people. Any attempt to take the means of freedom from the people is an act of rebellion against the people.

In order to resist a rebellious and disobedient government,the citizen militia must not be connected in any way with that government lest the body politic loose its fearful counterbalanceas the only sure threat to a government bent on converting free people into slaves.

Submitted by Norman E. Olson


You can find the rest here: http://www.potowmack.org/emerappb.html

Friday, March 4, 2011

February 11 Net Worth: 11% Growth

Wow, two months already into the year...time is flying by. Sorry about not posting, but am really focus on doing what I need to set my self up later down the road. I just don't have time with work and really doing research for investments. I'm still not sure how everything still plays out, but I feel good with what we are doing with our money.
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Another jump in our cash savings. This would be jumping a lot more but we are currently putting a percentage of our savings in Precious Metals as our insurance of our fiat paper. I feel that PM's are a store of wealth where our cash is only a currency.

Stocks/Brokerage: Stocks jumped this month with some more purchases and that the silver/mining stocks are on fire right now. One of my mining stocks (Fronteer Gold) got purchased my Newmont and the the stock jumped. I sold it with a percentage gain of 65%. I also sold Avalon Rare Metals with a percentage of 196%, this was a speculation buy so figured I should take my gains and reinvest them.

I've purchased SSRI, PAAS, AAU and DNN in the last couple months. I also added to my position of RGLD. Will keep looking to add here...looking to purchase some oil companies if we get a pullback. My plan is to keep purchasing Mining and Energy companies, as I still believe that Gold, Silver, Rare Earths, and Oil are in a bull market and I will ride the trend until I feel it is not undervalued.

The list of stocks we currently own: (SLW)(SVM)(SSRI)(PAAS)(AAU)(DNN)(EXC)(PWE)(PHYS)(EGO)(AUY)((LYSCF)(RGLD)(XOM)(CVX).

*As you can see I am heavy in commodities in my brokerage account. This is all based on my thought that over the next decade the best investments are going to actually be in hard assets. My Roth/IRA/401k are in pretty common index funds and mutual funds so I figure I can go more risky with brokerage. I believe these will out perform equities in the next decade and if nothing else I feel more comfortable with my portfolio being diverse. I am bearish on the US Dollar and US Economy, I believe that trillion dollar deficits are not going bode well for the USA.

Retirement 401k: This bracket is just both my wife and my retirement, adding money to our retirement funds every month.

Retirement IRA's: (Same as last month) Still having some cash on the sideline and will figure out what this market wants to do and see if I can put it to work. In this bracket I have all Vanguard Funds (VTSMX, VGSTX, VEIEX, VGPMX)

Real Estate: So this is a new category, based off getting 100% financing, right now its not even an asset based of not having any equity in our home. The plan here is to keep our money that we were going to put down as a down payment in the bank or investments. We will try and hedge our payments with trying to pay off the home in 10-15 yrs depending on what comes our way. This might change along the way depending on kids, economy, jobs and so forth.

Debts and Liabilities -
Credit Cards: Debt from couple monthly purchases from work and such, will be paid in full.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year.

Home Mortgage: Mostly paying interest on our home at the moment, so not much of a dent here.

There you have it. We remain being blessed and keep making the right moves with our money. I am still keeping a close eye on what all is going on with the stuff going on in the middle east. These oil prices are going to effect our economy and could do even more if the Dollar keeps falling like it has over the past couple months. Until next month, wish us luck.