Rocky Anderson, 2012 presidential candidate of the Justice Party, joins us to discuss our failed 2-party system and the battle to restore the Constitution. Anderson, a former two-term mayor of Salt Lake City and the founder of High Road for Human Rights, talks about our nation’s police state status-from the detention policies of the National Defense Authorization Act to drone strikes and targeted killings, and explains how our political system is set up to protect the two major parties.
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Divine right of kings means the divine right of anyone who can get uppermost. – - Herbert Spencer
Once upon a time there was ‘the divine right of kings,’ a political and religious doctrine of political legitimacy asserting that kings are subject to no earthly authority, deriving their right to rule directly from the will of God. The king was thus not subject to the will of his people. According to this doctrine, since only God can judge an unjust king, the king can do no wrong. The doctrine implies that any attempt to depose the king or to restrict his powers runs contrary to the will of God and may constitute a sacrilegious act.
Then came a time and men like Thomas Jefferson to change all that, and with it a new doctrine that basically said: “[A] bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse.”
But things never remain the same. Do they? In this case, devolution of some sort took place, gradually, sometimes more rapidly than at other times, and things reverted back to what they once were. The Divine Right returned, albeit with one or two cosmetic and inconsequential differences. Change the word ‘king’ to ‘Federal Government,’ expand the right to make it ‘rights,’ add a body of votes issued and granted (sometimes) by those who serve the throne, and there you have it: The Divine Rights of the US Federal Government; far bigger than a one-man kingdom, far more dangerous than a few-man monarchy, and far more powerful than a napoleonesque empire. It is a kingdom in layers: the not so visible top-tier kings-think MIC, Financial Conglomerates; the immune and untouchable presidency layer- think King George and King Obama; the leviathan bureaucracy unleashed with unlimited police powers- think CIA, Pentagon, Homeland Security, FBI and the rest …and let’s not forget the most crucial layer, the largest in size, the smallest in voice, and the most willing in rendering the power: the neo-indentured servants, as in ‘we the people’. Read more
Nick (Nicholas) Merrill joins us to recount his ‘surreal’ experience as the first American to stand up and challenge the FBI’s National Security Letters, living under FBI gag orders for the past six years, and being identified only as ‘John Doe’ in court documents. Mr. Merrill relates what made him resist the FBI order, and dicusses the unconstitutionality of these practices- government warrantless surveillance and searches, and violations of American’s liberties and privacy. He talks about the implications of the issuance of 50000 FBI national security letters per year seeking information on ordinary Americans and US businesses, our nation’s descent towards a police state, the importance of speaking out and resisting these government practices that violate our constitutional rights, our moral obligation to protect our liberties and privacy as a nation, his goals to raise public awareness on these issues, and ways to deal with them through his recently established nonprofit organization, and more!
Nick Merrill is the founder of Calyx Internet Access and the Calyx Institute. He was the first person to file a constitutional challenge against the National Security Letters statute in the USA PATRIOT Act. After receiving a National Security Letter from the FBI, he sued the FBI and DOJ and became the plaintiff in the lawsuit Doe v. Ashcroft filed on behalf of a formerly unknown ISP owner by the ACLU against the U.S. federal government. Mr. Merrill never complied with the FBI’s NSL request, and eventually – several years into the lawsuit – the FBI decided it no longer wanted the information it had demanded and dropped its demand for records. However for several years after dropping the demand, the FBI continued to prevent him from publicly speaking about the NSL, or even from being publicly identified as the recipient of the NSL. Because National Security Letters are accompanied by an open-ended, life-long gag order, Merrill was unable to be identified in court papers as the plaintiff in the case and instead was referred to as “John Doe”. In 2010, after more than 6 years, Nick Merrill was partially released from his gag order and allowed to reveal his identity, although he still cannot reveal what information the FBI sought from him.
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I just received an email with a link to the following clip, and with the link came the headline that read:
‘Wikileaks Has Proven the First Amendment is Dead & Gone!’
Is the First Amendment dead & gone? You bet! Has it been dead and gone for a while now? You bet! Where have these people been? Don’t take me wrong. I agree with what’s being said, and I’m so very glad that it is being said; finally. Maybe it took this latest war (this has been resembling a war more and more every day) to get some people see the reality on the ground-make that, in our nation…and while you are at it, make that for almost a decade. So why is this the case?
Please chime in with your thoughts on this, because the last time I checked:
The Fourth Amendment was Dead & Gone: Think NSA illegal eavesdropping; think FBI national security letters… Read more
By way of preface, let me give you a little of my background. I was born a prototypical Southern California working-class surfer boy. As a poor, white kid, I was educated by the California Public School system of the 1960’s and was, therefore, both the avatar of the Liberal Contract of Egalitarianism and an exemplar of the Last, Best Hope of the Uttermost West. As a student of History, I made it a point to learn the Lessons of History so I could help avoid its Mistakes. Growing to adulthood in the San Francisco Bay Area of the late 60’s, my mind was further expanded by the cultural ferment of the times, seeing in the Civil Rights, the Anti-Vietnam War and Countercultural movements a “Great Becoming” as formerly marginalized groups forced the society to be more open, more tolerant, more free. In short, to expand our society to more perfectly realize the vision of the founders of this nation, a Free Self-Government of Free, Informed Citizens Ruling with Equality and Justice for All. Combined with my background as a child of seafaring men, I was instilled with the knowledge gained from growing up in a seaport town, where goods and ideas were exchanged by people from all over the globe.
My upbringing allowed me to both demonstrate against the Vietnam War and then join the Navy. While serving I found myself in charge of safeguarding, loading and firing nuclear weapons during the entire Watergate episode of the Nixon administration while I was suing the Navy for fraud as part of a class-action suit over a bonus they promised me and 30,000 others. As a result of my voyages to some 36 countries across 3 continents, I was able to relate to the people there and see myself in them. It also gave me some inkling of the true power of the vision of America as opposed to its reality. Read more
Once upon a time there was ‘the divine right of kings,’ a political and religious 
By way of preface, let me give you a little of my background. I was born a prototypical Southern California working-class surfer boy. As a poor, white kid, I was educated by the California Public School system of the 1960’s and was, therefore, both the avatar of the Liberal Contract of Egalitarianism and an exemplar of the Last, Best Hope of the Uttermost West. As a student of History, I made it a point to learn the Lessons of History so I could help avoid its Mistakes. Growing to adulthood in the San Francisco Bay Area of the late 60’s, my mind was further expanded by the cultural ferment of the times, seeing in the Civil Rights, the Anti-Vietnam War and Countercultural movements a “Great Becoming” as formerly marginalized groups forced the society to be more open, more tolerant, more free. In short, to expand our society to more perfectly realize the vision of the founders of this nation, a Free Self-Government of Free, Informed Citizens Ruling with Equality and Justice for All. Combined with my background as a child of seafaring men, I was instilled with the knowledge gained from growing up in a seaport town, where goods and ideas were exchanged by people from all over the globe.
