According to Politico, Congressman Ron Paul calls on Congress to consider using letters of marque and reprisal to fend off the growing piracy movement that has captivated national attention over the last weeks. Letters of marque and reprisal, a power written into the Constitution that allows the United States to hire private citizens to keep international waters safe, serve as official warrants from the government to allow privateers to seize or destroy enemies in exchange for bounty money.

Days after September 11, 2009, Dr. Paul introduced legislation allowing President Bush to permit private citizens to go after Osama bin Laden and other identified terrorists and put a bounty price on the heads of targets responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Contractors would also be required to post a play-by-the-rules bond and turn over any terrorists — and their seized property —to U.S. authorities.

According to Paul, “The Constitution gives Congress the power to issue letters of marque and reprisal when a precise declaration of war is impossible due to the vagueness of the enemy … [and] once letters of marque and reprisal are issued, every terrorist is essentially a marked man.”

According to Newsmax, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), who is retiring in January 2011, has called for President-elect Obama to fire CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden. Hoekstra is currently a ranking member on the House Permanent Select committee on intelligence.

Hoekstra blasted Hayden for keeping secrets from Congress and the American people. According to Hoekstra: “[Hayden has a] military way of doing things. They like to keep all of the problems within them and say, don’t worry, we’ll deal with it. What you’re seeing here is just a continuing pattern of the intel community being shaped in the model of the military. And I think that’s just wrong.”

“The intelligence community [has] people with a tremendous amount of power who abuse it, and the end result is Americans dying. It can’t get any uglier than that,” he said.

“Once again, this whole community is going to be run by the military. I just think that’s a huge mistake,” Hoekstra told Newsmax. “These guys are very talented, but they approach it in a very different way in regards to accountability and these kinds of things than a civilian might do.”

Of particular concern to Hoeksta was the way Gen. Hayden and CIA have handled the investigation of the April 2001 shoot-down of a single-engine Cessna over the Amazon River in Peru.

“Innocent Americans died, and they didn’t have to, because of a CIA that has a history of operating outside the rules and not being held accountable. I think a civilian would have responded very differently from how Mike Hayden has responded. I think it’s going to be a cover–I think it’s going to be a whitewash,” concluded Hoekstra.

As Matt Welch explains in the Reason blog, Bill Kristol, the modern spokesman for neo-conservatism, whose own father was the intellectual origination of neo-conservatism, is warning the Republican Party about the threat of limited government. Says Kristol:

[C]onservatives should think twice before charging into battle against Obama under the banner of "small-government conservatism." It's a banner many Republicans and conservatives have rediscovered since the election and have been waving around energetically. Jeb Bush, now considering a Senate run in 2010, even went so far as to tell Politico last month, "There should not be such a thing as a big-government Republican."

Kristol has had his wishes granted under the Bush Administration. Which of his policies has succeeded?

Writes Huffington Post, “Three months before she was thrust into the national political spotlight, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked to handle a much smaller task: addressing the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God. Her speech in June provides as much insight into her policy leanings as anything uncovered since she was asked to be John McCain’s running mate:

Speaking before the Pentecostal church, Palin painted the current war in Iraq as a messianic affair in which the United States could act out the will of the Lord. “Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending [U.S. soldiers] out on a task that is from God,” she exhorted the congregants. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God’s plan.”

According to Politico, Tucker Eskew, a Bush-Cheney campaign veteran, will serve as a counselor to the Alaska governor, whose introduction as McCain’s running mate has jolted the presidential race. Eskew has been tasked with getting Palin briefed on domestic and foreign policy issues and advising her on her stump speech[es] on the road.

In the wake of the Russian invasion of Georgia, it has not been highlighted enough that U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL, sort of) was the sponsor of the April 28 House resolution which started the process of inviting Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO. Rep. Wexler should not get a free pass for this. When you recall that Article 5 of the NATO charter states that an attack on one member of the NATO alliance is considered an attack on all, you can see how dangerous and foolhardy this rush to expand NATO is.

While the U.S. nears a depression, there have been loud voices calling for U.S. intervention in the conflict between Russia and Georgia. The primary voices for intervention come from the neo-con camp, the same chosen few who led the U.S. intervention in Iraq.

The conflict between Russia and Georgia has arisen over a region known as South Ossetia. Various international bodies recognize the region as Georgian territory, however a referendum of South Ossetian residents in November 2006 confirmed that a majority of the residents — indeed, 99% — favor independence (with 95% voter turnout).

At Antiwar.com, Pat Buchanan explains the American hypocrisy in the situation. As he explains, “[the neo-cons] have pushed to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. This would require the United States to go to war with Russia over Stalin’s birthplace and who has sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula and Sebastopol, traditional home of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.” According to The Seattle Times, earlier this summer Putin warned George W. Bush that the U.S. pushing for Georgian NATO membership was going too far.

The Times reports that Vice President Dick Cheney and his aides and allies, who view Georgia as a model for their democracy promotion campaign, pushed to sell Georgia more arms, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, so that it could defend itself against possible Russian aggression.

“Putin, angry at what he saw as U.S. infringement in his backyard, decided Georgia was the line in the sand the West would not be allowed to cross,” says the Times.

But, in the end, what the U.S. media does not report is that it was the Georgians who were the aggressors. As The Guardian reports, “Many had traveled in their nightclothes on rocky roads through the mountains and gave bloodcurdling accounts of Georgian atrocities. ‘I came in the boot of a car. Georgian snipers were firing at us from the forest. My brother stayed to fight. Our grandparents’ home was reduced to rubble. We don’t know where they are. Nothing is left of their village. It was totally destroyed by rockets and tank fire,’ Alisa Mamiyeva, 26, a teacher in Tskhinvali, said from the safety of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia.” Justin Raimondo further details how the U.S. media has covered up the truth with propaganda.

Long story short, the U.S. should not involve itself in this conflict. The RLC supports military deployment in cases where there “is a clear threat to vital U.S. interests and only with the consent of the U.S. Congress.” The U.S. should get back to its own interests, not those of bastions of democracy, such as Georgia — which is really the aggressor in the conflict over South Ossetia.

Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has little regard for the law.

Chertoff is the co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act, a law that has little regard for the rights of law-abiding American citizens.

He is also the face of the government’s inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

DownsizeDC chronicles how Chertoff threatened Montana Governor Schweitzer. When Montana passed a resolution against REAL ID implementation, Chertoff warned the Governor that Montana residents would be banned from airplanes, or subjected to severe, time-consuming inspections at airports.

The Governor countered with his own threat, “How about we both go on 60 Minutes a few days after the DHS starts patting down Montana driver’s license-holders who are trying to get on the planes and both of us can tell our side of the story.”  Chertoff didn’t like that suggestion. He said, “I see the problem. We need to get this fixed.”

So far, the “fix” involves granting Montana and all other rebellious states an extension of the deadline for complying with the REAL ID Act.

Have you protested to your elected representatives that the Secretary of Homeland Security has been threatening the citizens of states that don’t comply with REAL ID? If not, please do so. You can mention the Chertoff-Schweitzer exchange in your personal comments. Ask Congress to repeal the REAL ID Act. You can send your message here.

Chertoff’s latest brilliant move is defending an official policy by Customs and Border Protection that allows agents at the nation’s borders to look through laptops–including reading their email or searching through digital snapshots–to look for incriminating evidence.  According to the misguided policy, agents don’t need any reason to search, seize or copy travellers’ laptop or phones. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Appeals Court has upheld the constitutionality of this ridiculous law.

Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) responded correctly: “[Chertoff's] statements make it clearer than ever that as we work to protect our national security, Congress must also act to protect law-abiding Americans against highly intrusive searches.”

Why does the man in charge of protecting our security have such little regard for the rights and liberties of law-abiding American citizens?

The Nation reports on the Money Bomb being launched today by Accountability NOW PAC. The bomb is directed at Democratic Majority Leader U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer and U.S. Reps. Chris Carney of Pennsylvania and John Barrow of Georgia. The trio, all Democrats, voted in favor of FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, just last month. The Act authorizes the President to instruct his Attorney General to conduct electronic surveillance on American citizens, with or without court order.

As Glenn Greenwald reports, “Organizers are hoping Friday’s money bomb will bring in $1 million to add to the approximately $350,000 the group collected to oppose the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which it used to placed ads attacking three Democrats who supported the surveillance legislation.”

Steny Hoyer and Chris Carney, in particular, should take a moment to pause on reflect on their vote. Hoyer is supposed to be leading the House Democratic Majority, not following the Republicans in lock step. Carney was elected in 2006 on a “change” platform, largely by voters dissatisfied with the Iraq War, but it looks like he’s delivering more of the same.

In Hoyer’s district, voters have a sound alternative: The RLC-endorsed candidate, Collins Bailey. I have met Mr. Bailey personally and he impresses me as an individual with depth of knowledge of the issues and a great deal of personal integrity. Collins Bailey is also a small business owner and a member of the Charles County Board of Education (Maryland).

The ad against Steny Hoyer appears below. As Glenn Greenwald concludes: “Recent fights over surveillance and the rule of law have been dispiriting, but I think these kind of non-partisan, accountability efforts are the most practical way to counter capitulation in Washington — and tangibly increase the power of a proactive, anti-corruption, civil liberties movement.”

The RLC is a similar grassroots citizen effort to take back our country. Now is the time!

In Reason Magazine, W. James Antle, III analyzes a book by Bill Kauffman entitled “Ain’t My America.” Antle says Kauffman is correct that the warfare state is as injurious to many conservative goals—keeping government small and taxes low, promoting free enterprise, maintaining stable families, affirming the value of human life—as the welfare state.

Antle continues, “Only six Republican congressmen and one GOP senator voted against authorizing the Iraq war. The upper chamber nay vote was cast by Lincoln Chafee, the most liberal Republican in the Senate. The six House members were divided evenly between noninterventionist conservatives (Paul, Jimmy Duncan of Tennessee, and John Hostettler of Indiana) and Rockefellerites (Jim Leach of Iowa, Connie Morella of Maryland, and Amo Houghton of New York). Almost six years later, after more than 60 percent of the American people have concluded that our Mesopotamian adventure was a fiasco, there are exactly four consistently anti-war Republicans in Congress.”

He concludes by saying, “During his 1980 presidential campaign, Reagan said that his political message could be summed up in ‘Just five words: family, work, neighborhood, freedom, and peace.’ When the right applies these principles more consistently to foreign policy, it will be morning in Bill Kauffman’s America.”

Read more.