Posted by Ryan.Gaba on 07/02/10

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-52037-Will-County-Libertarian-Examiner~y2010m
7d2-Halvorson-flops-on-transparency-at-the-Fed

Grassroots volunteers for the Campaign for Liberty in Will County and across country have been knocking on doors, staffing tables at fairs, and organizing rallies to promote the passage of legislation to audit the Federal Reserve since 2008. On June 3, 2009, Debbie Halvorson joined as a cosponsor to H.R. 1207, a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, after a meeting with Campaign for Liberty members in her district offices.

The Federal Reserve acts as America's central bank; it enables most of the reckless spending in Washington, D.C., and is a major contributing factor to our current economic problems. Their activity, which consists of printing money and loaning it to well connected banks, recently increased to historic highs, which resulted in curiosity about the whereabouts of trillions of dollars and sparked a wave of self-education about monetary policy among the people everywhere.

Campaign for Liberty members in the 11th district in Illinois presented petition signatures to Debbie Halvorson on numerous occasions. On one of those occasions, Halvorson was personally there to announce she would cosponsor the bill to audit the Fed. While she discussed her reasons and answered questions, she acknowledged there is a possibility the Senate would restrict the audit and she would do everything she can to prevent it.

Her constituents may have been surprised to find out she recently voted against a motion offered by the minority party to the administration's Financial Reform plan that would have ensured full transparency of all loans made by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis that started in 2008.

While Halvorson has denied her constituents the ability to know how their money is being spent, the Audit the Fed movement will go on, and it is hopeful the same bill will be reintroduced next session to finally bring transparency to the Federal Reserve. Whether Debbie Halvorson will be there to vote on it will be determined by those responsible for fixing the problems in Washington.

You can join the Audit the Fed Illinois facebook group here and join the Campaign for Liberty by signing up here.

Posted by Ryan.Gaba on 06/14/10
Last updated 06/14/10

New Lenox, IL -- Big thanks go out to our landscape managers at The Village of New Lenox for finally allowing private individuals to use their property to generate electricity from nature instead of purchasing it from the government-sanctioned monopoly, ComEd. There has been a legitimate movement dedicated to alternative energy for a very long time, and until June 1st it was illegal to use in New Lenox. Whether this technology will work in this area or not is irrelevant; the question is whether or not anybody has the authority to tell his or her neighbor how to use private property.

The lone dissenter to the legalization of green electricity in New Lenox, Village Trustee Ray Tuminello, doesn't think people with less than 3/4 or 1 acre of land should be able to own and operate a wind turbine on his or her property. He “agree[s] with the concept” of allowing people to generate electricity from wind on their property, but having windmills in back yards is “too close for comfort.”

Lovers of liberty may wonder if Tuminello has a clue about the future of the cost of electricity when price inflation continues to stick its ugly head in that sector. Apparently he does not think people with smaller plots of land should be able to prepare for such predictable, tough times. If he were to respect the rights of property owners, he would not support any regulations on private property. If he were interested in making sure the citizens of New Lenox had all the tools necessary to survive the upcoming tidal wave of economic troubles perpetrated by the Federal Reserve's self destructive monetary policy and the Federal Government's fiscal irresponsibility, he would not support any costly regulations on any private individuals' ability to generate their own electricity.

Instead, Tuminello and his colleagues want to force others to live by their handicapping standards. I am all for keeping New Lenox attractive, and I trust most people would choose to erect their alternative energy sources in an aesthetic way without their guidance.

Here are some of the bureaucratic guidelines residents must follow to use the wind to be self-sufficient in New Lenox:

- A wind energy system must be professionally installed.

- It must be limited to one per lot.

- It must be located in the rear yard.

- Its operation cannot exceed 60 decibels.

- It may be 35 feet tall (or 15 feet above an attached structure).

Here are the regulations for creating electricity from the sun:

- A solar energy system must be on the rear or side of a building or on a roof.

- Its colors should blend in with the structure.

- In a residential area, it cannot exceed one-tenth of the footprint of the building (one-half in a commercial area).

Defenders of property rights may empathize with the decibel limit for wind turbines. Sound pollution is a form of aggression. Nonetheless, if I were to own a much larger lot in New Lenox and in the center of my lot is a wind turbine that emits 65 decibels, who is going to accuse me of noise pollution? One size does not fit all.

The rest of the regulations have no justification and are supported by people who believe that our omnipotent government has an obligation to force us to make our property meet their cosmetic standards.

Sadly, the message of getting the government out of the way in energy production is not a popular one among most people in the green power movement. Many support taxing what they deem inefficient energy sources in order to encourage people to use their desired technology. Who really cares about those people in society just scraping by?

Cap-and-Trade/Tax is a revenue-generating scheme developed by insiders in the federal government to coerce people to adopt technologies they are not currently interested in purchasing, mainly because it is too costly. Those who support a Cap-and-Tax policy typically blame corporations for the current energy situation; it is not easy to look in the mirror and realize if their desired technologies were sustainable, they themselves would be using it! Then again, such technologies may be illegal in their towns, too.

I wonder how many people in New Lenox wanted the federal government to pass Cap-and-Trade while they did not even know their favored alternative energy source was outlawed. Perhaps the anti-capitalist wing of the environmentalist movement should research which international corporation is using the media to lobby public opinion and the government for subsides and profits that are destined to come with cornering the imagined "carbon credit market."

Posted by Ryan.Gaba on 05/16/09
Last updated 05/16/09

What a great day!  We have been keeping our eye on the weather all week.  It was supposed to rain this morning, but that didn't phase us.  Nino, Michelle, Justin, Eric, Bob, Dan and I all had a plan to educate the people of New Lenox about the secrecy of the Federal Reserve System and the solution in H.R. 1207, and we did!  This was also the first Will County C4L organized event and I feel it was a huge success.  We started the Will Co C4L off with some education and political activity which are the items that need to be addressed to accomplish the C4L's mission.  A special thank you goes out to my friends from up north.  Thanks for making the trip!

Our team petitioned the 19th voter precinct in New Lenox.  Of the people who answered the door, 92 of them were comfortable signing a petition in support of H.R. 1207.  There were 551 ballots cast from the 19th precinct for the November 2008 election.  I'll leave the math and speculation to you readers, but I have a feeling a large portion of voters in this area are going to be paying a little closer attention to how Debbie Halvorson feels about transparency over the Federal Reserve come election day, especially if there is some sort of currency crisis going on, as we are seeing signs of now.  I would estimate that <50% of people where home, 75% of people I talked to signed the petition.  The houses that did not answer received a H.R. 1207 brochure tucked under their door mat to make them aware of this historic legislation.

Rep. Halvorson, I'll be dropping by this week to let you know how your constituents feel about your week long consideration of your support for transparency and accountability over monetary policy.

Thanks again to everyone who showed up.  It was wonderful meeting you all!  Hope to see some more new faces at this weeks Welcome Meeting.

Posted 05/16/09 Justin Kapacinskas Elgin, IL

The HR 1207 Petition Tour really rocked in New Lenox. Thanks to Ryan who did a great job organizing this petition drive (the maps and the planning you did to identify the areas to petition were terrific). And thanks to Bob, Eric, and Dan! You guys rock! We got some good responses today and I thought that many residents of the 11th Congressional District were receptive to the information (many of them quite compellingly so). It's clearly time for Congresswoman Halvorson to explain her position on transparency for the Federal Reserve to her constituents in the 11th Congressional District. We had seven Patriots working on the project today. Just imagine if we could get 20 people targeting an individual area with petitions for HR 1207. Well that's just what I want to do in the 6th Congressional District (Peter Roskam) and in the 14th Congressional District (Bill Foster)--in addition to the great work that the folks in those areas are already doing. Illinois can become a shining example for the country (in this small regard)! How many signatures will be enough for our representatives to clearly and unequivocally respond to our petitions? Several hundred? A thousand? I'm prepared to keep working on this project to Audit the Fed until grassroots political pressure is brought to bear on any Representative in Illinois who stands in the way, through inaction or otherwise, of transparency for the Fed. 165 cosponsors. Let's keep the momentum going!

Posted 05/16/09 Ryan.Gaba New Lenox, IL

Thanks for the great comment Justin. I am with you all the way!

Posted 05/16/09 lisaw Momence, IL

Thanks, one and all. You guys are really inspiring!

Posted 05/17/09 bobjones68 Schaumburg, IL

Most excellent dude!

Posted by Ryan.Gaba on 05/12/09
Last updated 05/16/09

I have recently sent out messages and phone calls to all of the members in the Campaign for Liberty who are located in Will County.  I expressed my interest in getting together for a Welcome meeting and a lot of you sounded interested.  As of now, I plan to hold the meeting Wed. May 20th, 6PM at the Pilcher Park pavilion located next to Gougar Rd in New Lenox.  I posted the details to the County calendar.  Now, the set of pavilions I would like to meet at is at the back of the park so it would be easiest for everyone to use this location instead of the official Park address.

In order to keep up with events that we are going to participate in, everyone needs to check your daily or weekly digest emails, specifically under the Events section.  If you do not recieve the digest emails I would suggest you sign up for it in the settings under "My Dashboard" when you are logged in.  If you don't have an account here, please sign up and get plugged in.

Posted 05/13/09 lisaw Momence, IL

I will try to make this meeting, Ryan. Thanks for arranging it.

Posted 05/14/09 PappySr Joliet , IL

I will try to attend this meeting.

Posted by Ryan.Gaba on 05/09/09
Last updated 05/16/09

As Lisa mentioned, Debbie Halvorson is now "considering" her support of H.R. 1207.  So we must keep up our calls, letters and visits to her offices, but we also definitely need to do everything else we can to let her know how the average constituent feels about transparency and accountability over the Federal Reserve.  So I am organizing a petition drive in New Lenox for Saturday, May 16th at 9:00 AM.  Anyone is welcome to attend.  I will have the coffee, doughnuts, slim jims, clip boards, petitions, maps, and pens available so all you need to bring is yourself and a smile.  I had planned on organizing a "Welcome meeting" for the first Will County C4L event, just to get to know everybody who expressed interest.  But with the momentum that H.R. 1207 has and the recent news of her acknowledgement of the bill, we really need to act fast and hard on this.  And what better way to kick off the Will County C4L than with some boots on the ground education and political activity?

We can meet at Ranch Frosties, fuel up and answer any questions. My mother down the street also agreed to allow us to practice on her if anybody has never done this before.  I'll have the routes planned out and if we enjoy ourselves, maybe we can pick up where we left off in the following weeks or visit your neighborhood and do the same.  Feel free to contact me through the C4L messaging system with any questions.  If you plan on attending it would be great to hear from you in advance so feel free to contact me or just RSVP through the C4L events calendar or comment below.  Looking forward to meeting all of you!

Event Details

IL-11 Petition Drive for H.R. 1207
Saturday, May 16th 2009
Starts at 9:00 AM
Ranch Frostie
1259 N Cedar Rd
New Lenox, IL 60451

While it would be ideal for everyone to start at 9:00 AM, if you cannot make it then but would still like to help, feel free to contact me in advance and I would be glad to arrange it so you can join up with us at your convenience.

Posted 05/11/09 Justin Kapacinskas Elgin, IL

Alright buddy, tentatively I'll say 'yes'. Anyone who would like to commute with me from the Des Plaines area (or along the route) to New Lenox, please contact me. May I recommend making the meetup location in a public place instead of a private residence? Then we can be more confident in publishing the address of a public location. Do you want to put it on the C4L Calendar as well? [Nevermind, I see the Calendar entry!] We could also schedule an event on the Greater Chicago C4L meetup if you wish. Looks like the Metra Rock Island District commuter rail serves New Lenox, but the first train arrives in New Lenox at 9:41 AM on Saturdays. (http://metrarail.com/Sched/ri/ri.shtml)

Posted 05/11/09 Ryan.Gaba New Lenox, IL

Got it. We can arrange a pickup if anybody is interested in that train. Go ahead and post it wherever you want. Thanks again Justin!