This news item is a few weeks old now, but since this site wasn’t up a few weeks ago I’m going to mention it now. That’s how important this one is.

Congressman Sensenbrenner (R-Wi) has introduced legislation in the House that will make it a crime to not report certain drug offenses that you learn of or witness.

The innocently named bill, titled “Defending America’s Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005 ” is anything but innocent. If passed, this legislation would require you to report to local law enforcement, within 24 hours, if you simply become aware of one of many drug related offenses by a anyone under the age of 18.

Not only are you required to report these individuals, you are also required to assist the government in investigating, apprehending, and prosecuting these individuals. I presume this could mean you would be asked to wear a wire to entrap the individual, or you could even be asked to testify against a family member.

And if you choose not to report the individual or assist to government? You would face, at minimum, a 2 year sentence!

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In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court decided that local governments can seize people’s homes or businesses, against their will, for private development. This means that if city officials prefer to see, for example, an office building where your home is located, they can force you to sell your property to a developer at what they determine to be a fair market price.

This officially drives the stake through the heart of any remaining property rights that we may have thought we had. The government now has full consent to take anyone’s property, as long as they determine it will be ‘upgraded’.

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The House passed a resolution today proposing an amendment that would exclude flag burning from our first amendment rights. If passed, Congress would be permitted to make laws punishing anyone caught burning a flag in protest.

If this weren’t so sad, it would be funny. Our politicians have had our Constitution up in flames for years now, what’s wrong with me burning a flag? This is supposed to be America!! Freedom of speech capital of the world! Geesh, what has happened to this country?

What I don’t understand is, it seems that most people actually support this. Sure, the flag is a symbol of our country’s government, and I guess that most folks have a warm spot in their hearts for the country and the flag. But do we really want to head down the path of making speech against government symbols a crime? I certainly don’t.

Like most things in goverment, if this ever passed it would have the opposite of the intended effect. More flags would be burned in protest of this amendment than have been burned in the last 20 years on US soil.

The reality is, symbol or not, a flag is the property of its owner. If a property owner chooses to destroy his property, that is his choice and his right. Let’s hope it remains his right.

H.R. 2745, the United Nations Reform Act of 2005 has been passed by the US House. This bill cuts the United Nations funding by 50% unless the UN agrees to impliment certain listed reforms.

If you’re like me, and believe that the US should withdraw from the UN, then on the surface this sounds like a great deal. Drastically reducing the dues that we pay to the UN is certainly a step in the right direction. This bill was passed mostly along party lines, so maybe the congressional Republicans are finally thinking straight!

Wrong. As Ron Paul and Henry Lamb point out, the devil is in the details. If implimented, these reforms would grant the UN unprecedented new powers, and streamline existing processes.

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Across the nation, city governments are looking into what it would take to offer “free”, city-wide wireless internet access to all residents. A few small cities, such as Alexandria, Va. and Marshalltown, Ia. already offer this, and larger cities like Philadelphia are not far behind. Don’t be suprised if, in a few years, municipal telecommunications services are as popular as municipal garbage collection.

Proponents say that providing wireless internet access will benefit many people, would be relatively inexpensive to impliment, could tie into existing government equipment, and could attact new businesses and residents to the city.

In actuality, this will lead to higher taxes and internet prices, will stifle competition, eliminate jobs, and lead us down the slippery slope towards censorship.

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Thanks for visiting Liberty Now!

We are just about ready for our official launch! I have spent most of the weekend learning WordPress, getting the layout looking decent, and writing down some things about myself and this blog.

Now I guess it’s time to enter a few actual blog entries to get things rolling. I hope to get some content added over the next few days, then I’ll spend some time trying to figure out how to drive some traffic to this site (fun, fun)!