The Record Blog
Monday, January 4, 2010
Restoring Liberty
[ Patrick Tuohey ]
At the Kansas City Christmas party of the Liberty Restoration Project (LRP), it became apparent to me how enormous the task of fending off big government has become. The LRP is a Missouri-based group formed by activists from Ron Paul's 2008 presidential race. Their website describes them as,
A politically diverse group of concerned citizens who have decided to throw down the arbitrary barriers (such as political parties) that divide us and work together as American Citizens to improve our country, starting as locally as possible.
The LRP had much success in 2009 including:
* Playing a significant role in enacting legislation in Missouri to opt-out of the REAL ID Act of 2005. The Act, among other things, established new national standards for state-issued driver licenses and non-driver identification cards;
* Educating Missourians on the role of the Federal Reserve in monetary policy and pushing for national efforts to audit them; and
* Bringing attention to the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) report that left the impression that libertarians might be viewed as domestic terrorists. The report was subsequently retracted and the director of the organization stepped down. In her remarks last night, LRP executive director Catherine Bleish said, “There is no reason why we who are against force, violence, and coercion should be considered a threat.”
What is most appealing about the LRP is that they have moved beyond the tit-for-tat of modern partisanship where the other party is guilty of such awful crimes and one's own candidates are above reproach (while often continuing the same policies). Rather, the LRP brings attention to the ever-increasing power of the federal government, regardless of what party is in control. Furthermore, LRP members are usually young, energetic and often coming to this form of libertarianism from Democratic liberalism.
For 2010, the LRP plans with other similar groups across the country such as Texans for Accountable Government (TAG). to bring public scrutiny to the 72 fusion centers in the United States whose job it is to “nationalize and militarize” state and local police, according to Bleish. Four of those centers are in Missouri.
Fusion centers aim to share information between state, local and federal law enforcement agencies. According to Bleish:
Every time you get pulled over, [that interaction] is run through that fusion center, every time you call 911 it is run through that fusion center. They have access to private databases and public databases. And this information is accessible-directly or indirectly-by over 500,000 people, not all of whom are Americans.
Bleish claimed that the Springfield, Missouri fusion center admits sharing information with Canada and that an Oklahoma fusion center was discovered to be sharing all drivers' license information with Germany. She asked, “why is my address and my height and my weight and my eye color and my hair color allowed to be processed through these fusion centers and shared with foreign countries?”
The liberty movement has its work cut out for it. While the Tea Party movement nobly aims to hold the line on government growth, the LRP and others are actually seeking to push it back.
1/4/2010 11:50:45 AM
via The Record Blog.
