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<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#1a00fa size=5 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #1a00fa; FONT-SIZE: 18pt">"And, without constitutional government, freedom cannot endure. </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#f81313 size=5 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #f81313; FONT-SIZE: 18pt">There will always be a "crisis" — which, as the president's chief of staff has said, cannot be allowed to "go to waste" </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#1a00fa size=5 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #1a00fa; FONT-SIZE: 18pt">as an opportunity to expand the government's power."</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#1a00fa size=5 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #1a00fa; FONT-SIZE: 18pt">"Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power — vs. the rule of law and the preservation of freedom — are the "useful idiots" of our time. </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#f81313 size=5 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #f81313; FONT-SIZE: 18pt">But useful to whom?"</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
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<H2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT color=#0d007e size=7 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 32.5pt">Is U.S. Now On Slippery Slope To Tyranny?</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT color=black face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black"></SPAN></FONT></H2>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/537967/201006211813/Is-US-Now-On-Slippery-Slope-To-Tyranny-.aspx</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black><SPAN style="COLOR: black"></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV>
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<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 15pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=1 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 9pt">By </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=1 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"><A title=http://www.investors.com/Search/SearchResults.aspx?source=filterSearch&Ntt=THOMAS+SOWELL&Nr=AND(Author:THOMAS+SOWELL) href="http://www.investors.com/Search/SearchResults.aspx?source=filterSearch&Ntt=THOMAS+SOWELL&Nr=AND%28Author%3aTHOMAS+SOWELL%29" rel=nofollow target=_blank><FONT color=#0d007e><SPAN style="COLOR: #0d007e; TEXT-DECORATION: none">THOMAS SOWELL</SPAN></FONT></A></SPAN></FONT><FONT color=#0d007e size=1 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"> Posted 06/21/2010 06:13 PM ET</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=black size=1 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 7.5pt"><A title=http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISSSowellC.gif&docId=537967&caption= href="http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISSSowellC.gif&docId=537967&caption=" rel=nofollow target=_blank><FONT color=#0d007e><SPAN style="COLOR: #0d007e; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><IMG id=MA1.1277596260 title=http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISSSowellC.gif&docId=537967&caption= border=0 alt=http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISSSowellC.gif&docId=537967&caption= src="cid:1.356507182@web83605.mail.sp1.yahoo.com" width=128 height=215></SPAN></FONT></A></SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black><SPAN style="COLOR: black"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 10.5pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 6pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=1 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 8.5pt"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=1 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8.5pt"><A title=http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISSSowellC.gif&docId=537967&caption= href="http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?path=ISSSowellC.gif&docId=537967&caption=" rel=nofollow target=_blank><FONT color=#0d007e><SPAN style="COLOR: #0d007e; TEXT-DECORATION: none">View Enlarged Image</SPAN></FONT></A></SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union .</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington , and few people seem to be concerned about it.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">The president's poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico .</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Many among the public and in the media may think that the issue is simply whether BP's oil spill has damaged many people, who ought to be compensated.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">But our government is supposed to be "a government of laws and not of men."</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">If our laws and our institutions determine that BP ought to pay $20 billion — or $50 billion or $100 billion — then so be it.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">But the Constitution says that private property is not to be confiscated by the government without "due process of law."</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Technically, it has not been confiscated by Barack Obama, but that is a distinction without a difference.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">With vastly expanded powers of government available at the discretion of politicians and bureaucrats, private individuals and organizations can be forced into accepting the imposition of powers that were never granted to the government by the Constitution.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don't believe in constitutional government.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">pg.2-And, without constitutional government, freedom cannot endure. There will always be a "crisis" — which, as the president's chief of staff has said, cannot be allowed to "go to waste" as an opportunity to expand the government's power.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">That power will of course not be confined to BP or to the particular period of crisis that gave rise to the use of that power, much less to the particular issues.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">When Franklin D. Roosevelt arbitrarily took the United States off the gold standard, he cited a law passed during the First World War to prevent trading with the country's wartime enemies. But there was no war when FDR ended the gold standard's restrictions on the printing of money.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">At about the same time, during the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law "for the relief of the German people."</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people — indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">The man appointed by President Obama to dispense BP's money as the administration sees fit, to whomever it sees fit, is only the latest in a long line of presidentially appointed "czars" controlling different parts of the economy, without even having to be confirmed by the Senate, as Cabinet members are.</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 18pt; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 17.25pt"><FONT color=#0d007e size=4 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: #0d007e; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power — vs. the rule of law and the preservation of freedom — are the "useful idiots" of our time. But useful to whom?</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black size=2 face=Arial><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><I><FONT color=black size=4 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="FONT-STYLE: italic; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">"</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Politicians, like diapers, have to be changed frequently-and for the very same reason."</SPAN></FONT></I><FONT color=black size=4><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt"> </SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black><SPAN style="COLOR: black"></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal><FONT color=black size=1 face="Times New Roman"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 7.5pt">Anonymous</SPAN></FONT><FONT color=black><SPAN style="COLOR: black"></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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