Get Smart: Texas is determined to get Phil Smart, Libertarian candidate for 22nd State Senate

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You Blog because you are crying to be heard; You are here because what is happening today makes you cry.

Phil Smart is a Certified Public Accountant who runs his own business in a small town in Texas in the Dallas area. He runs his business out of his home, which is out in the country, allowing him the freedom he wants to indulge in his hobbies. In his hours away from the computer and pencil and paper Phil likes to restore old cars, his pride and joy is a Capri from the 60s but he also is proud of owning one of only seven Edsels still in existence.

Phil Smart loves animals and has for years rescued abandoned dogs and cats, feeding them himself and finding loving homes for them. Several years ago his home was ransacked and two of his cats who were declawed escaped. They were killed. Mr. Smart found their bodies when he returned home. Smart's home had been invaded by the police while he was incarcerated on yet another traffic violation. The authorities found nothing illegal but left the Smart home a shambles. They began characterizing Philip Smart as a terrorist.

Smart graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with degrees in business and psychology, going on to get another degree that allowed him to practice his profession. Phil is a quiet kind of guy except when he attends debates and forums. He started getting interested in politics several years ago and then two years ago decided to run for County Commissioner as a Libertarian.

He was arrested three weeks before that election and not released until after the vote was in. This election season Phil is running for State Senate, again as a Libertarian. The timing for his arrest is similar this time, a strange and unaccountable coincidence.

His interest in politics caused Phil to ask questions for those in charge of the local government. Speaking up is evidently something that upsets the local establishment. Along with asking questions at forums Phil posts signs and bumper stickers declaring his love for freedom and Libertarianism. This tendency to ask questions of persons in positions of authority is, according to his girl friend, Donna Watson, the reason Philip Smart has been arrested six times in the last two years. Donna is a financial counselor at an Oncology facility in a town nearby.

On the first occasion Philip was upset that his bank would not give him cash for his CD. All the rest of the times the cause of his trips to the local jail have been traffic issues. On one of these occasions a female officer stopped him on his motorcycle, demanding his license. She then searched his motorcycle over his objections, also neglecting to note this on her report. But the motorcycle bears her fingerprints.

On this last occasion Philip was stopped for bringing his car to a stop six inches over the line at the stop sign. The arresting officer, a Sargent Rogers, then insisted on searching Smart's car, finding the daytimer that holds his medications. Since he had failed to carry these in the bottles that had the prescriptions included he was arrested. The next day Donna offered to bring down the prescriptions. She was told not to bother. Ms. Watson was told by Lisa Moon, the officer staffing the desk, that it is illegal to carry prescription drugs unless they are in bottles that have the prescribing physician, the pharmacy, and the name of the patient.

Philip Smart has been incarcerated in the Ellis County Correctional Facility located at Wayne McCollum Detention Center, 300 South Jackson, Waxahachie, Texas 75165. He has no blanket and so at nights he is cold. You can write to him care of the above facility in Cell Block S – C.

While you would think that given his good character and the nature of the charges he would be placed with other nonviolent offenders. But instead he is incarcerated with hardened criminals. On at least one of these occasions he was placed in solitary confinement, lights on 24 hours a day for two weeks.

Philip Smart is suffering from the lack of the prescription drugs he needs to survive. His mother, Jesse Smart works at Sak's; His father, Dr. Don Smart, is an Ophthalmologist. No one knows what to tell Phil's 16 year old son, who is asking what happened to his Dad.

Phil Smart lives on a cul de sac street. Last year his beloved dog, Puppy, a Shelty-mix, turned up dead on his lawn, the victim of a hit and run. The neighbors were shocked and believe that Puppy's death was caused by Smart's political activism, the activism that so upsets the powers that be in Ellis County.

Far from being a threat to society Phil attends a tiny local church when he does not attend his girl friend's church. Certainly Phil did not expect that running for office as a Libertarian would prove to be so hazardous to his health. But Donna received a call from a consulting psychiatrist who was allowed to view Philip Smart remotely from his office in Galveston, Texas. The doctor was worried. Philip Smart's physical condition had deteriorating rapidly and he was shaky and disoriented from cold and the lack of his prescriptions. Those concerns evidently forced those in charge to ensure that neglecting to carry his prescription bottles with him did not become a death sentence. His mother received a call on October 25^th , demanding she bring down a list of those prescriptions. Today, by indirect report, we have learned that Mr. Smart's condition has improved.

Evidently Texas has different rules than other places in America – or, as some have come to fear, Texas and Homeland Security may be about to declare Mr. Philip Smart, a quiet CPA, a threat to National Security. If that is the case and with Habeas Corpus extinguished Philip Smart may be up for an extended vacation in one of the Homeland Prison Facilities in Texas that are even less attractive that the Ellis County Jail.

In America today there are evidently no rules we recognize. Having canceled the 4th Amendment this government appears ready to view all of us as terrorists. Make sure you carry your prescription bottles with you at all times - and begin working to restore the 4th Amendment. We have never needed it more.

The Military Commissions Act: Mary Stromberg, a grandmother from Alabama, asks a question of educators

On October 18th Mary Stromberg, a grandmother from Auburn, Alabama wrote a letter to every educator in her state asking this question. Here is her letter:

Dear Sir,

I have been pondering the signing of the Military Commissions Act all
yesterday and today......I can't imagine what we will tell our school
children about the change in the constitution. I am involved in church
committees that will deal with high school and college aged students and
we will be asked how this new law affects us as a country and as
Christians.

It occurs to me that whatever wording we choose should be consistent
and clear. This will affect high school and college courses, church
groups, and civic groups who are attempting to pass on high minded civic
responsibilities.

Please advise,

Mary Stromberg

Many Americans like Mary are wondering what kind of world we will leave for our children;

if any trace of America's proud tradition of individual rights will remain as a heritage to future generations. These are questions that need asking.

They call it the Military Commissions Act; some whisper that it really should be The Torture Act. It was proposed by George W. Bush to provide a retroactive defense for war crimes carried out against POWs, innocent civilians, and American citizens held without ever having been charged with a crime. What they call it does not matter. The names should not confuse us.

It is wrong;this is an attempt to circumvent the means by which our Constitution is amended. All of those involved know that to be the case. Congress passed two acts, one in the House and one in the Senate, that have rescinded the 4th Amendment of the Bill of Rights. This must not stand because no legitimate American government can rescind the inherent rights of Americans and this is what has been attempted.

America has been a beacon of hope for the entire world since its founding, not because of the economic opportunities found here but because America began with a vision that resonates with what each of us knows is true. We are each born free no matter what others might say or do.

America came into existence as an act of faith in God, through actions undertaken in the face of seeming impossibilities. A small population challenged the most powerful force on Earth and won. Our Founders believed in, lived and died for the idea that each of us is free, not through government but before any government existed, free in the sight of God no matter what their condition might be through the acts of man.

America was founded as the point of light and faith for a humanity who hungered for individual freedom. The Revolution was fought by individuals, men who went to war, women who lived in the line of fire, providing the supplies that kept soldiers from starvation. They left us a legacy for freedom but they could not make us free. We were already free in the eyes of God.

Those who fought the Revolution understood that freedom was something they must affirm for themselves. Those now dead left us that legacy, the memory that we are free but the affirmation of that freedom remains ours to keep. We must do for ourselves.

Government did not make us free. It cannot rescind our freedoms as affirmed in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

No one ever said that it was safe to be free or that we might not have to work and fight to maintain that freedom.

Congress voted; George Bush signed a paper. We are still free but government has shown it does not respect the rights given to us by God.

This is not the first time this has happened. During the Civil War the Congress passed a nearly identical law. It was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. But in the interrum people were incarcerated, tortured, and the fabric of trust on which America relies was shredded beyond recognition. That this precedent is well understood by those in power we know. They chose to sign it on the anniversary of the Act that rescinded the rights of Americans during the Civil War. They know. We have no reason to assume that they will stop there.

Mary Stromberg asked what our children be told about their rights as Americans in the schools we pay for that are controlled by the government that has acted as if it could cancel our rights? We know that already. They will be told this has happened before so there is precedent. They will not be told it was found to be unconstitutional. Americans no longer control the schools for which we all pay.

Honest questions deserve honest answers. This morning Mary received one response from an educator in Alabama. This educator is a former instructor on the Constitution who understood. The woman, now in administration, admitted that teachers will be forced to comply with the mandates that are provided by the powers that be. Those powers have already spoken. We know what to expect.

Thomas Jefferson drew from many sources as he considered the substance of individual freedom. One of those sources was the Iroquois Nation. For the Iroquois war was a serious matter. Lives were at risk and could be lost. Therefore those who made the final decision for war were those most invested in the cost that could be exacted. Those were mothers, mothers who would send sons off to fight and to perhaps die.

When you understand the truth of our inherent rights and the founding of America there is nothing you can say to a child or adult that justifies the actions of those in Congress who voted for this act against all Americans. There is no justification, no excuse, no possible explanation. We became a nation by overlooking the impossibility of winning the Revolution. While this Congress is sitting we should not fear terror from afar; the greatest threat to America today is walking the halls of power in Washington D. C.

One grandmother from Alabama has spoken out and taken action. Soon she will be joined by many others, also angry and concerned. It is time for us to come together. This is not a political questions but one that cuts to the heart of all that it means to be an American.

Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, Independent. That no longer matters. It will take all of us to enact change.

Mary Stromberg asked a question and has heard one answer. That is a beginning. Ask your own educators what they will say to our children. They need to know we will not be silent. Their answers will tell us what must come next.

Republican Sex scandals old and new: The NeoCons Gaslight America. Why America and journalism needs standards

(The Portraits of Dorian NeoCons)

The Problem: Mark Foley, Republican Congressman from Florida, is a queer who lusts after underage boys. He is outed publicly just weeks before a national election that the NeoCons are hoping to steal.

Strategy: Attack! Muddy the water as needed. Begin disinformation campaign.

Personnel to be activated: Matt Drudge, John Fund, Tony Perkins, Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter take point. They will activate the third tier political operatives positioned around the country. Many of these have no idea that their powerful friends are lying to them.

The Line: At the beginning: “Pity poor MARK Foley because he is a victim, having been sexually molested by a Catholic priest as a child. Mark publicly admits to drinking problems and so is a victim himself who is courageously admitting his failings. Bash Bill Clinton, the only Democrat who seems to have had sex with a woman although not his wife. The victims asked for it and enjoyed it.

These 'lines' are now being inserted into the discourse by Matt Drudge and others downstream in their chain of political operatives.

Mark Foley now admits he is gay; so is Drudge. On his radio show Drudge hosted his old friend John Fund.

2^nd and 3^rd Tier Operatives: The next level takes the Line and feeds it to the mainstream.

As an additional tactic Fox News changed Mark Foley's political affiliation from Republican to Democrat. Then Mark Foley becomes Tom Foley, deceased Democrat. This is now working its way through the layers of media who rarely research anything and the 2^nd and 3^rd Tiers who take all pronouncements as Gospel.

Two examples of the Tier Operatives are Steve Frank, (stephenfrank@sbcglobal.net, phone number: 805-795-1271) in California who said on his Republican E-Zine a couple of days ago , titled, “Sexual Hypocrisy of Democrats “ To quote: “Jesse Jackson, Mel Reynolds, Tom Foley, Lyndon Johnson, I could go on--the Democrats are filled with current and former leaders, in and out of elective office that abused their position for sex.”

The attempt to confuse one Foley with another is not accidental.

The Passionate American in Oklahoma, outed the identity of the underage victim, taking up one of the points of The Line regurgitated by Drudge.

In each instance we see marching orders, part of the larger disinformation campaign, carried out. Finding out who gives them their Line would be instructive.

The outcome of such disinformation links out to millions. “[Dobson] touched on the uproar over former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, D-Florida, who resigned Friday in a scandal over electronic messages he sent to former teenage male congressional pages, this through AP. ”

Rove and his Political Operatives use a protocol for reformating 'the truth.'

NeoCons have been using these weapons since Clinton entered the White House and Project Arkansas began, funded by Scaife. Those operatives are doing the same work today, John Fund, Matt Drudge among them. Fund and Drudge may well have thought up the name switch, Tom for Mark Foley. That was how they came up with the attack on Sidney Blumenthal. It was another Blumenthal charged with abuse that gave them the idea. What they do politically they also apply to their personal lives. I have had personal experience with their methods.

(excerpt)

JOHN FUND: She had a one-night stand from Craig, she had nothing else.

MORGAN: WHAT!!!!

JOHN FUND: You told Craig.

MORGAN: What do you mean, I mean.

MORGAN: That Craig would confirm that I had a relationship with you. Is that odd? (SHORT PAUSE) I'm not the one who picked up the phone in the hotel room John, that was you.

JOHN FUND: I accept responsibility for that. (SHORT PAUSE) Look Morgan you've done your damage and (PAUSE) and go ahead and do what you want to me. I've got a long list of things to anticipate and I am fully expecting that some of it may happen but I think it is very short sighted and very spiteful of you if you do it.

MORGAN: Look, I just told you I wasn't going to do anything. How many times do I have to..

JOHN FUND: You also told me you would never tell on .. (THERE'S A BEEP IN TAPE) and you managed to. (full Transcript)

In 2001 the tape of John Fund scheming to evade the consequences of his personal behavior was aired on the internet. NeoCon ranks hold many nasty individuals like John Fund and Mark Foley. Using power to evade the consequences of behavior viewed as bizarre and deviant is standard for NeoCons, of which Fund is a prominent member. That is not accidental. Deviants are easy to control. They make the NSA wire tapping unnecessary. NeoCons welcome deviants and cover for them as a simple cost of doing business.

The failure to accept the deviant nature of those who call themselves NeoCons is destroying the America we love. Both Democrats and Republicans have failed to effectively respond for two distinct reasons. Some who could act have guilty secrets known to the NeoCons. Others refuse to believe anyone in such positions of respect could protect deviant behavior. Both are problems that need to be solved.

The use of lies, the institutional misuse of power, and the evasive tactics we associate with the NeoCons are intentional. They are taught to those within their ranks, justified by a mythology that uses Evangelical rhetoric and Straussian rationalizations.

Very few decent people will consciously cooperate with this kind of strategy, so useful to Rove and Company. Therefore NeoCon political operatives, working as pundits, journalists, and in other capacities, are likely to be ethically challenged and very possibly deviant themselves.

Foley is just the latest example. There is a long list of NeoCon deviants in power using deceit and manipulation. For the most part onlookers see only parts of the larger strategy and therefore fail to understand how each component works to misdirect and change public perception.

I learned about how they operate by experiencing it, beginning in 1992. Fund, someone I thought was an old friend, began calling me with bizarre sexual stories about Bill Clinton. These included a Black love child, a very strange tattoo, and other malfeasance on the part of both Clintons. I believed it and spread these rumors to fellow members of the National Federation of Republican Women in Santa Barbara. Later I saw the way these were being used.

In 1999 I was living in Santa Barbara recovering from a heart attack and caring for my oldest son who had suffered two major brain injuries, the result first of a motorcycle accident in September of 1997 and then a suicide attempt in March of 1998.

Around March or April of that year I was told that my daughter Morgan was dating John Fund. I knew she had moved to New York. I did not believe the rumor but called Fund to ask. John had told my kids to call him him “Uncle John.” I got John on the phone and repeated the rumor to him. He told me the rumor was entirely untrue but that as Uncle John he was feeding her cat for her while she was out of town. I believed him.

In September of the same year, 1999, I received a call from Morgan. We had not talked in two years. She said she wanted to repair our relationship. I told her that depended on her telling me the truth about what had happened previously. John Fund came up. During the conversation Morgan told me she had aborted John's child. I refused to believe her. We were arguing about that when she received another call and put me on hold. I was on hold for a long time and hung up and called her back several times. That is the BEEPING on the transcript. Morgan did not answer but eventually she called me back and said, “Don't say anything, just listen,” I did.

The Weasel Search Tape is ugly. Ignore the personal implications and look at what Fund is doing. Fund characterizes their relationship as a one-night stand, something that is obviously not true given the duration of the relationship even in 1999.. But Fund knew how to use lies, his political connections and the media to alter public perception. Over the next several years we were subject to ongoing assaults on our character and on every other part of our lives.

The term for this kind of manipulation carried out personally is Gas Lighting. In Effect, the NeoCons are Gas Lighting America.

In 2001 – 2002 Fund battered my daughter, nearly killing her. I was a witness over the phone; I saw her injuries. Silencing us became a political issue using political contacts and the media. Over the next several years period Fund persuaded Eric Alterman to write his attack on Morgan and myself. That appeared in The Nation.Mark Crispin Miller responded. Two other stories that might have told the truth were killed. The reporters received better paid jobs at the Wall Street Journal.

Fund used his influence to get Wendy McElroy, a woman who had made her living defending those guilty of various offenses, including domestic violence, a job at Fox as a columnist. She wrote an article supporting Fund in July of 2003.

Fund used a woman law professor from San Diego with whom he was having an affair to send out a letter, broadcast to journalists. The woman's name is Gail Hariot. Hariot put up a site for Fund as well while they were having an affair. The affair is documented by a letter Fund received on Morgan's computer while she and Fund were still living together.

The Society of Professional Journalists has a list of tenets, outlining the ethical obligations of journalists.

The events above would not have taken place if the tenets for professional journalism had been followed. The same lack of accuracy enables the NeoCons with Foley. None of the journalists involved except Miller followed these protocols outlined for professionals as specified by the Society of Professional Journalists

- Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
- Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.

To evade such standards NeoCons brought a constellation of nonprofits into existence, including the Federalist Society and the National Journalism Center. Their think tanks work hand and hand with these. In law, in journalism, and in politics, the NeoCons have worked to build their own institutions that allow them to change the rules of operation that were respected and adhered to by most professionals. They are treated as colleagues even though they distort professional standards. That is a mistake.

The National Journalism Center is the child of M Stanton Evans of Evans and Novak. John Fund was placed at the Wall Street Journal by Robert Novak in 1983, Novak is now generally understood to be a NeoCon himself.

The NJC is a project of the Young Americans Foundation and celebrates its stars, for instance Anne Coulter , David Horowitz and John Fund. On their links page you will find the Society of Professional Journalists. Evidently the standards for ethics are not enforced in journalism today. Each of these prominent graduates engages in the same pattern of unethical behavior.

Understanding the strategy used in Project Arkansas, an operation I first encountered through the lies Fund planted with me, and now with the Mark Foley event, which parallels that used against us, is the first step to enabling change. These are weapons of war, not to be confused with professional associations; their graduates must carefully watched since NeoCon political operatives come, in large part from their ranks.

The next means for countering the assaults on justice and our freedom is objective journalism. On the Internet an alternative media is coalescing and following the standards abandoned by the mainstream media. In the 60s underground papers rose to confront an establishment who had eliminated the voice of dissent and truth. Bloggers have become the first line of defense for the war on truth.

We need to recognize and support those who are doing that essential work.

Hart Williams is a writer who lives in Oregon. He noticed that there were a lot of initiatives making it on the ballot that were having disastrous effects on his local area. He started investigating, uncovering a story that is now being picked up by PBS, the Washington Post , the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Christian Science Monitor. But because he was blogging he was barely credited and his work took a long time to come to public attention. He is still working on the same story. Hart follows the tenets of professional journalism, something more journalists from all mediums must practice.

The Hart Williams story is slowly wakening conventional journalists who are building an org chart of astroturf organizations started by Howie Rich, New York millionaire and Edward H. Crane, III, one of the founders of Cato Institute. The tactics used to avoid notice by Howie and those now being outed depend on deceit, misdirection and money that cannot cannot be traced. They have refused to answer questions about funds, channeling these through 501(C)4s, which do not have to report the source of money. State governments and local activists feel as if was had been declared on them. The Howie techniques are similar to those used by the NeoCons on the National level. Are they using the same rule book written by the NeoCons? This well may be the case.

Journalists such as Hart Williams have become the front line for truth that counters disinformation campaigns like that of Howie Rich for his stealth initiatives and those of Matt Drudge and John Fund on behalf of NeoCons.

Mark Foley, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Matt Drudge, John Fund, Howie Rich, Edward H. Crane,III, Laura Ingraham, Tony Perkins, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, George W. Bush, Ann Coulter, David Horowitz, do they all connect, and if so, how?

This is an investigation too large for any one journalist. It demands cooperation. Such cooperation could provide what we need most, a right - left working coalition.

The truth is coming through as courageous journalists begin to dig. That truth may keep us free despite the NeoCons. Personally, I think it is about time. We need to put away personal agendas and face the enemy together. Read Hart's blog and start connecting the dots.