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  Government is a Terrible Master

Posted by FoM on October 19, 2001 at 08:23:48 PT
By Steve Kubby 
Source: WorldNetDaily 

Everyone's talking about terrorism these days, but my family and I have experienced terrorism up close and personal. We survived our terrorist attack and, in the process, we learned a great deal about how state-sponsored terrorism actually operates in America today. In our case, our home was invaded early in the morning. We were robbed at gunpoint and then kidnapped. These terrorists even tried, though unsuccessfully, to extort $200,000 (in bail) from us. 
Worst of all, these terrorists had badges, and were empowered by laws that were originally passed to be used against "drug lords." Despite the fact that we were lawfully exercising rights granted to us by a medical marijuana law we helped to pass, we found ourselves facing 19 criminal counts. After two and a half years and a quarter of a million dollars in legal expenses, a jury acquitted us and we regained our freedom, but little else. Even though we had proved our innocence, none of the terrorists involved were ever punished for this illegal raid, nor was any of the property stolen from us returned, not even the data off of our computers. But we survived and sought an escape from such terror in the freedom and wildness of British Columbia. From the safety of Canada, we now watch in horror as America's police and military are handed the keys to the country. Because of our experience with "drug lord" laws being used against our family, we understand that, with the passage of the "U.S.A. Act," the Constitution has effectively been suspended and martial law imposed. Our leaders assure us that Congress is standing up to terrorists by passing this law, but just the opposite is true. Congress is refusing to stand up for the freedom and rights that are the heritage of all Americans. Congress is failing to use its constitutional power (and fulfill its constitutional obligation) to check and balance the other branches of government. Cowering before the police, the military and public hysteria, Congress is bartering away our rights. The USA Act may be the greatest act of appeasement since Chamberlain waved a piece of paper in the air and told the British they were safe from Hitler. Congress has just handed over unprecedented and unconstitutional powers to the police. Have we forgotten that these are the same police who just a few months ago were making headlines for violating human rights, profiling minorities, placing a third of black males under the control of the criminal justice system, and planting guns and drugs on innocent young men in Los Angeles? No one has the right to barter away rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Yes, it's horrific that 5,000 innocent people were so brutally slaughtered on Sept. 11. But what about the hundreds of thousands of brave American patriots who willingly gave their lives to defend the guarantee of inalienable rights? Who will speak up on behalf of these brave patriots who paid the ultimate price to preserve our heritage of freedom? The American patriots who created and bravely defended our Constitution and Bill of Rights deserve to be heard. If they were alive today, they would be outraged. Benjamin Franklin would remind us: "They that can give up essential liberty to gain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety," and, "Wherever liberty dwells, there be my country." Wise old Thomas Jefferson would then raise his voice and with calm firmness explain that rights are indivisible and can never be separated from us by any law or government. "A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." Then a hush would fill the air, as everyone turned and faced the great general and first president, George Washington. The assembled patriots would all show their deeply-held respect for Washington, an American legend, whose death inspired the proclamation, "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen!" The founding father of the United States of America would then speak directly to every citizen in America and repeat the warnings he issued upon leaving the White House: "Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty ... Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is a force, like fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master." Steve Kubby is the founder of The American Medical Marijuana Association and played a key role in the passage of California's Prop. 215, the statewide initiative legalizing medical use of cannabis.Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)Author: Steve KubbyPublished: Friday, October 19, 2001Copyright: 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Inc.Contact: letters worldnetdaily.comWebsite: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/Related Articles & Web Site:The Kubby Fileshttp://www.kubby.org/It's The Constitution, Stupid!http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11088.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Steve Kubbyhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=kubby

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Comment #8 posted by Dan B on October 20, 2001 at 14:01:03 PT

Allow Me To Put This Another Way
Here are Kubby's words, followed by the questions they raise and do not answer:From the safety of Canada, we now watch in horror as America's police and military are handed the keys to the country. Because of our experience with "drug lord" laws being used against our family, we understand that, with the passage of the "U.S.A. Act," the Constitution has effectively been suspended and martial law imposed. How so? What exactly in the U.S.A. Act has suspended the Constitution and imposed martial law. Perhaps we'll find out in the next paragraph:Our leaders assure us that Congress is standing up to terrorists by passing this law, but just the opposite is true. Congress is refusing to stand up for the freedom and rights that are the heritage of all Americans. Congress is failing to use its constitutional power (and fulfill its constitutional obligation) to check and balance the other branches of government. Cowering before the police, the military and public hysteria, Congress is bartering away our rights. Nope. Nothing there. He is saying that they refuse to stand up for "freedom and rights," but not how, and not which freedoms and which rights. He says that they are cowering to the police and such, but he never says exactly what they have done. There is not even a brief explanation of the specific rights and freedoms that have been "bartered away." Absolutely no specifics are mentioned at all. This is entirely nebulous and fruitless.The USA Act may be the greatest act of appeasement since Chamberlain waved a piece of paper in the air and told the British they were safe from Hitler. Congress has just handed over unprecedented and unconstitutional powers to the police. Have we forgotten that these are the same police who just a few months ago were making headlines for violating human rights, profiling minorities, placing a third of black males under the control of the criminal justice system, and planting guns and drugs on innocent young men in Los Angeles? Okay--so Congress has just handed over unprecedented powers to the police. Which powers? This goes back to the same problem that has been going on for the past two paragraphs: absolutely no specifics. In order to be convincing, he must include specifics. But no, instead of providing specific examples of how this legislation is taking away rights and freedoms and giving unprecedented powers to the police, he simply switches topics to the drug war. I repeat, so far Kubby has said absolutely nothing of any substance whatsoever. It is all fluff.No one has the right to barter away rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Yes, it's horrific that 5,000 innocent people were so brutally slaughtered on Sept. 11. But what about the hundreds of thousands of brave American patriots who willingly gave their lives to defend the guarantee of inalienable rights? Who will speak up on behalf of these brave patriots who paid the ultimate price to preserve our heritage of freedom? Once again, bait and switch. Don't get me wrong: it's a good argument, but he again misses the mark by completely avoiding the facts--the specifics. Congress "barter[s] away rights guaranteed by the Constitution," and Kubby doesn't even explain to the sheeple what rights have been bartered away. It's a bit difficult to get all riled up about what has happened when he doesn't even take the time to say what has happened. I don't like picking apart arguments from the good guys, but the fact is that our arguments must be better than theirs. Heck, I agree with Steve Kubby on this and many other issues, but we have to support our statements with facts and careful analysis. I said before that Kubby (in this article) has evaded the issue of what this act actually does (specifically) in favor of railing against it (nebulously). He never explains himself; he just says he doesn't like it and leaves it at that. Not good enough. If you make a claim, you have to support that claim with facts. Period.Dan B
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Comment #6 posted by dddd on October 20, 2001 at 02:35:29 PT

British Columbia
..has gorgeous scenery,,I havnt been there for ten years or so,but I grew up in northwest Wasington State,and I spent alot of time up there,,,but that was back then,,,,,,One thing I do know,,,or think,,,is that it aint gonna that much different up there,than it is here when the terror war goes into full swing,and is integrated with the drug war,,(drugs=terror,,terror=drugs).....I hate/love to be predicting dark times to come,but if the last 6 weeks is any indication,,then the only way you can stay kinda free,is if you have alot of money,,and you carefully grease the right palms......................once again,,Gong gong gong gong gong......here it comes,,,and it's gonna be spectacularly gruesome!.....dddd
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on October 19, 2001 at 18:20:18 PT

lookinside and everyone
I don't want to have to leave the USA. I love it here. I hope the laws change. If they bring back the draft if a person doesn't want to go they can fail their drug test so it might do some good but drug testing is wrong. My husband has been drug testing since 93 and it is a really annoying.
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Comment #4 posted by lookinside on October 19, 2001 at 18:06:55 PT:

dr. zombie...
my email address is available...if you like, let me know what you find out about B.C....if medical marijuana becomes a ticket to federal prison, my family and i will have to flee...
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Comment #3 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on October 19, 2001 at 15:04:48 PT

Re: Disappointment
I think the language wasn't "sidestepped" in favor of simply ranting, at all.Cannabis Prohibition cannot be discussed at all without ending up in discussions of or reference to, constitutional law. That becomes quite technical and wordy. The people Kubby wants to reach aren't gonna dig into technical arguments: they respond to direct simplicity.(a sheep bleats off in the distance..)Prohibitionists control the vast portion of american media. They get to put out horrible propaganda (like that terrible "no hope with dope" article from this week). They have the upper in that they don't even have to qualify what they say.We , however, have to expend time, and media opportunities just undoing thier lies before we can ever tell the truth. So he cuts right through in hopes of stimulating some independent thought and action.I think I need to start researching British Columbia. I deserve a better quality of life.
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Comment #2 posted by Dan B on October 19, 2001 at 11:38:57 PT

Disappointed
I'll be honest, I was expecting more. It seems like Steve Kubby has responded to the USA Act by sidestepping its actual language and focusing on the words of our founding fathers. If I were to have read this article with no foundation as to the nature of the USA Act, I would have thought that it was merely an attempt to toss up a red herring rather than a rather eloquent reminder of the foundation of this country.In other words, I wish there were more commentary pertaining to the actual words of this act and what they mean to us when entered into practice. I have yet to see a good examination of this legislation from either side. There was the blurb on Undernews that gave their perspective on the act, but there were no cross references so that I could actually look at the legislation and see for myself what it said. I saw the text of the legislation, but most of it is full of "Replace 'for' in section 1.b3 of title XVIII in the Uniform Code of Likewise and Soforth with 'in favor of', and replace 'mumbo-jumbo' in line 3, section 8.b with 'whatchamacallit,' etc." I want to see the exact wording of the changes made to every piece of legislation that has been changed by this act, and so far I can't find it. Don't get me wrong; I appreciate Kubby's commentary, and I respect the guy a heck of a lot. I just wish that this particular commentary had stuck to the issue of exposing the act for what it is, rather than simply railing against it.Dan B
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on October 19, 2001 at 10:47:06 PT:

What happens to a country
when it's 'best and its' brightest'...leave? When those upon whom much is dependent...no longer feel the need is mutual? What happens when a nation loses its' conscience...because its' basic principles have been lost through crisis or expediency? Or plain old, home-grown, garden-variety despotism? The kind that says, with a smile as it grinds you under its' jackbooted heel, "This is for your own good!"I fear that the Kubbys may well be the vanguard of an exodus which will further diminish the United States...in much the same way the flight of the 'Smart Jews' left Nazi Germany without its' 'best and brightest'. For which we should all be grateful; otherwise Washington DC and New York would probably be nothing but craters glazed with trinitite and glowing after sunset. And we'd all be singing Deutschland Uber Alles under a swastika.But the ugly truth is, the US has yet to learn its' lesson about playing with the fire of tyranny...but it will learn, very soon. 
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