“A free America... means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it.”

Frank Lloyd Wright

In 1776 our founding fathers signed into action the most revolutionary documents man had ever known. The Declaration of Independence and the US constitution were dissent, they were bravery, they were a vision, they were the unknown waters of confidence, they were and will forever be told through our founding fathers blood, sweat, and tears. When the bloodshed ceased and the gun smoke thinned the institution of the US Constitution outlined and declared freedom through a citizen elected government that was balanced by separation of powers, and the Bill of Rights contained in the US Constitution protected the citizens from loss of these freedoms.

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

George Washington

1765 is the year King George III of Britain passed the Stamp Act, requiring the American colonists to pay a never before imposed tax on all British imported goods. This attempt to enforce taxes in the American colonies was disastrous move for Britain. King George III would try year after year to successfully tax the American colonies, but the American colonists refusal to pay these imposed taxes resulted in failure after failure in the collection of these taxes. In March 1774, an angry English Parliament responds to the rebellious activity occurring in the American colonies by passing the first of a series of Coercive Acts which include the Massachusetts Regulating Act and the Government Act which would virtually end any self-rule by the American colonists relinquishing the political power and the rule of law to the English Crown and the Royal governor.

These acts would bring together the first American Continental Congress which held it's first meeting in September 1774, resulting in the declaration and the opposition to the Coercive Acts, and the statement advising that they are, "not to be obeyed.” The American Continental Congress eventually concluded that, “These acts of Parliament are infringements and violations of the rights of the colonists.” Within a short period the Revolutionary War begins in full swing solely for the purpose to protect the Freedoms and Liberties of the American People.

“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.”

Continental Congress Declaration, 1775

Our founding fathers cherished American Freedoms and Liberties. They struggled and fought so hard for their preservation. They clearly warned us of how fragile these freedoms and liberties are. It is our duty as Americans to honor and recognize our founding fathers warnings, Constitutional Law, and what measures we must take as a nation in the absolute preservation of these freedoms. Our founding fathers gave the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the rights to "life, liberty and property. Unfortunately, the America today has forgot that America of yesterday.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be”.

Thomas Jefferson

The electronic age, ironic enough has created mentally and physically sluggish America that is completely voided of all the hard work that is combined with the body, spirit and mind. This was the driving force that previous American generations proudly displayed through their morals and way of life. If we want to honor America and preserve our liberties we must wake up from the automatic pilot of our daily lives and really pay attention to the real issues we face today. To much of your surprise, you will find out that it is not our health care system, our distribution of tax subsidies, it is our freedoms and liberties that are suffering. We need to turn off American Idol, our cell phones, and our computers. We must as Americans educate ourselves about our liberties. Once there is an understanding of what rights we are entitled to and why it is, you will see that our freedom is almost out of reach.

Our freedoms and liberties are a blessing, a gift. But the world would never know how special it is, since we constantly pick at it and toss it out as if it were garbage. No big deal right?

"The Senate is not supposed by the Constitution to be acquainted with the concerns of the Executive Department. It was not intended that these should be communicated to them, nor can they therefore be qualified to judge of the necessity which calls for a mission to any particular place or of the particular grade, more or less marked, which special and secret circumstances may call for. All this is left to the President. They are only to see that no unfit person be employed." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on Powers of Senate, 1790. ME 3:17

Today, the executive branch of the government is immensely powerful, much more powerful than the founding fathers had envisioned or ever wanted. Congressional legislative powers have been seized illegally and held by force. We as Americans should be aware of this occupation, since we are the ones that invited this force in. The Congress is broken down into two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. These two houses have the chief function of making of laws, authority in enumerated power over financial and budgetary matters, to "lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, and to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and the general welfare of the United States. The Constitution also gives Congress an important role in national defense, including the exclusive power to declare war, to raise and maintain the military as well as the military rule of law. They control the establishment of post offices and post roads, the issuance of patents and copyrights, maintenance of the standards of weights and measures, admittance of new states to the Union, the establishment of courts under the Supreme Court, the authority to enact legislation in order to enforce rights of African Americans, voting rights, due process, and equal protection under the law and the exclusive power of removal, and impeachment of the President

One of the foremost non-legislative functions of the Congress is the power to investigate and to oversee the executive branch. Congress also has implied powers derived from the necessary-and-proper clause of the Constitution which permits Congress "To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

So what is this force that has seized our Congress illegally? You must be asking yourself, “With all the power the Congress holds, how can usurp happen so easily? So quite? So smooth that the American citizens are unaware of this usurp, and the Congress doesn't even put up a fight? This force must be one powerful force. Right?

So what is this force? This force is presented in the form of the Presidential Executive Order. A Presidential Executive Order or EO is a legally binding orders that is solely given by the President, bypassing Congress completely. The Executive Order governs everything from the Flag Code of the United States to the ability to declare Martial Law. History tells us that EO's have been issued by the presidential office since 1789. There is no Constitutional provision or statute that explicitly permits an issuance of an EO. However, EO's have legal force. Until the early 1900s, EO's went mostly unannounced and undocumented, seen only by the agencies to which they were directed. Today an EO is available and allowed for review by the general public, through the Freedom of Information Act, unless a particular EO is issued under the name of National Security. A Presidential Executive Order, whether Constitutional or not, becomes law simply by its publication in the Federal Registry. This is the moment where Congress is by-passed.

Some of the most recent EO's that have been passed show little interest in maintaining a free society. Instead, they are the stepping stones for a government to centralize. A look back into history would tell us that an over bloated government weakens a nation by limiting the freedoms and liberties that are designed for the people.

These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen:

• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the communication media.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.
• EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce the plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.

“On every unauthoritative exercise of power by the legislature must the people rise in rebellion or their silence be construed into a surrender of that power to them? If so, how many rebellions should we have had already?”

Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, Query 12, 1782

Our founding fathers were against Presidential control of certain powers. The founding father's structured the role of President as the chief executive of the United States Executive Branch. The president does not have the power to directly introduce legislation, but he definitely can play a role in shaping it if his political party is the majority. Presidential influence on Legislation can also be obtained through annual constitutionally-mandated reports given to Congress. The presidential can also “Veto” any proposed bill. But a presidential “Veto” can be overridden by two-thirds of both houses of Congress, making it substantially more difficult to enact the law. Perhaps the most important of all presidential powers is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Our founding fathers took care to limit the president's powers regarding the military. Tell me, is this the type of president we see in office today or have seen in years passed, performing the duties and roles that are given as Presidential entitlements? The Constitutional role of the President is specifically set up to have limited power to prevent the President from ever retaining too much power, power as seen only within a Dictatorship.

What we are facing today goes against every bit of what an American is and what America represents. If the President has the power to suspend the Press, force a national registration of all persons, and retains the power to transfer whole populations to any part of the country the whole core of our government is lost. The Government at that time becomes a dictatorship.

“The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.”

Adolf Hitler

Article 1, Section 9 states, “The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Habeas corpus is a concept of law, in which a person may not be held by the government without a valid reason for being held. A writ of habeas corpus can be issued by a court upon a government agency (such as a police force or the military). Such a writ compels the agency to produce the individual to the court, and to convince the court that the person is being reasonably held. The suspension of habeas corpus allows an agency to hold a person without a charge. Suspension of habeas corpus is often equated with martial law.

"Why suspend the habeas corpus in insurrections and rebellions? The parties who may be arrested may be charged instantly with a well defined crime; of course, the judge will remand them. If the public safety requires that the government should have a man imprisoned on less probable testimony in those than in other emergencies, let him be taken and tried, retaken and retried, while the necessity continues, only giving him redress against the government for damages. Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that suspension. They have been either real treasons, wherein the parties might as well have been charged at once, or sham plots, where it was shameful they should ever have been suspected. Yet for the few cases wherein the suspension of the habeas corpus has done real good, that operation is now become habitual and the minds of the nation almost prepared to live under its constant suspension." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:97

In 2006, the Military Commissions Act was passed which, in addition to legalizing torture, allows the president and military courts to declare anyone an enemy combatant without basic civil rights like habeas corpus.

In 2007 the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act contains sections which deal with the current limitations on U.S. government's ability for use of the military to intervene in domestic affairs. This Act allows the President, at his own discretion, to institute martial law. Under martial law the U.S. military replaces local law enforcement and takes direct and total control over all areas in civilian administration. Regular military usage within the U.S. borders is prohibited through the passage of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. Sec. 1042 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act of 2007 entitled, “Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies,” effectively overturns the Posse Comitatus Act and has modifications allowing the President the ability to declare Martial Law without Congressional notification in the name of National Security, thus completely altering the role of the current U.S. Military.

In 1991 and in 1993 Legislature passed the Crime Bills, allowing the President complete and total decided authority whether American citizens rights should be suspended and their property seized if a Narcotics Dealer conviction or Conspiracy to distribute Narcotics charge has resulted.

Today we have many similar emergency plans, for example the 1991 Violent Crime Control Act, which provides additional powers to the President of the United States, allowing the suspension of the Constitution and Constitutional rights of Americans during a “drug crisis.” This Act also provides for the construction of detention camps, seizure of property, and military control of populated areas. During a suspension of Constitutional Rights FEMA would gain the control of military commander and the authority to take over State and Local Governments. FEMA then would also have the power to order the detention of anyone whom there is reasonable belief has, had, or will engage in, or the conspiring of acts relating to espionage, sabotage, or terriorism. Wait! Isn't our Constitution and the rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights during any civil disturbances, major demonstrations and strikes and allows the military to implement government ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels, the arrest of certain unidentified segments of the population, and the imposition of Martial Law? As always our founding fathers implemented examples of police excesses into the Bill of Rights.

So what is Liberty and Freedom? To know the true power of Freedom and Civil Liberties it is imperil that “We the People” must regain our position within our government. It is crucial for the sovereignty of our future generations and the guarantee of a future America.

Benjamin Franklin said it best : “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”