How to prepare for martial law: STEP 4- Confiscate all forms of barter

[Watchman63]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58724

Friday, November 16, 2007
Feds raid Liberty Dollar offices
Gold, silver for 'private voluntary barter currency' confiscated
Posted: November 16, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A company that makes and distributes Liberty Dollar coins in various denominations has announced it is shut down – for now – after a raid by FBI and U.S. Secret Service agents in which documents, records, coins and gold and silver were confiscated.

Liberty Dollar produces and distributes the coins as "private voluntary barter currency," or coins that compete with the Federal Reserve notes used in general economic circulation.

In a news release signed by Bernard von NotHaus, the "monetary architect" for the company in Evansville, Ind., officials announced yesterday "a dozen FBI and Secret Service agents" raided the office,

"For approximately six hours they took all the gold, all the silver, all the platinum, and almost two tons of Ron Paul Dollars that were just delivered last Friday. They also took all the files and computers and froze our bank accounts," the letter said.

The Peace Dollar, by Liberty Dollar

"We have no money. We have no products. We have no records to even know what was ordered or what you are owed. We have nothing but the will to push forward and overcome this massive assault on our liberty and our right to have real money as defined by the U.S. Constitution," it continued.

The company said it did not know when, if ever, it would be able to resume filling orders.

It also said a special website had been set up for those interested to "band together for a class-action suit."

"We cannot allow the government to steal our money," the letter said.

U.S. Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials both declined comment on the issue, referring WND to the U.S. Attorney's office in North Carolina. There a spokeswoman told WND she had no information "on the public record" she could provide.

Asked if that meant something had occurred, but officials were withholding information, she responded, "Yes."

Company information says Von NotHaus developed the Liberty Dollar in 1998 as an "inflation-proof" alternative currency to Federal Reserve Notes. The U.S. government, however, historically has taken a dim view of anything monetary that could be perceived as substituting for Federal Reserve Notes.

Authorities have attacked such alternatives as counterfeiting, while supporters of such bartering tool attack the Federal Research Notes as fakes.

That opinion was shared by Lance Haverkamp, who joined in a forum at the Courier-Press newspaper on the issue.

"Do you realize how stupid it is to say the green stuff is 'real' and the gold & silver is 'fake'… You must work for the government!" he wrote.

The organization explained its position like this:

"It's incredible how few people know the facts about the Federal Reserve. The organization chaired by Ben Bernanke is not 'Federal' – it is instead a cabal of private and international banks that does not answer to the United States government. And while there is some precious metal stored in Fort Knox, it doesn't back the debt based 'fiat' U.S. dollar that they issue, because nothing backs it except your trust in the system! Even a casual look at the Fed's history leads one to wonder how an institution that profits mightily from its own policies of victimizing Americans has maintained control over the money of the wealthiest nation on Earth. For those who have made a serious inquiry, the Federal Reserve is shadowed in deceptive origins and fraudulent policies."

Its alternative is a series of coins made of precious metals that can be exchanged for an assigned dollar amount. Over its history, the company has produced the California Bear, Chambersburg Dollar, Evansville Dollar, Hawaii Dala, Peace Dollar and the new Ron Paul Dollar, among others.

The company claims legal opinions that its products are not illegal, and posts testimonies from those who have used the Liberties.

"I am writing this to Liberty Dollar in hopes that it can be used to help with support," wrote a fan, M. Symonds, of Dallas, Texas, who reported using the coinage for $700 expenses on a trip to Austin.

"My entire trip was funded with The Liberty Dollar. It used it everywhere I went. … I am here to tell you that the major chains and businesses will accept them. Here is a list of some of the places I used them: Joe's Fina Mart, Placido, Texas; James Texaco, Lolita, Texas; Jack In The Box, Austin, Texas; Chevron, Schulenburg, Texas; McDonalds, Port Lavaca, Texas, Wal-Mart, Port Lavaca, Texas; Reeds Grocery, Odem, Texas…"

"The only catch is that as the Liberty Dollar is voluntary, your bank may not accept it for deposit," the company website said. "Of course, this also means that money cannot be siphoned away from your community by big box retailers. The Liberty Dollar is designed to stay in your community of origin for the advantage of the community."

For example, a construction worker is paid a $20 Liberty for services, he then takes it to a grocery story for $20 in groceries. The store owner pays a local utility bill with the coin, and that coin then goes to a utility company employee for wages. That employee then pays it back to the construction worker for a remodeling project.

[Watchman63]

Liberty Dollar No Longer at Liberty
The Raid on the Headquarters of the Liberty Dollar

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/450012/liberty_dollar_no_longer_at_liberty.html

By Lectern
The Liberty Dollar is a privately issued currency distributed and promoted by Liberty Services. Until Thursday morning, the currency was produced in Evansville, Indiana. At 8 AM on Thursday morning, the 15th of November, federal agents made a surprise raid on the mint, seizing coin and note, computer files, gold, silver, and platinum. Also included in the federal raid was the Sunshine Mint in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where the dies for the money were kept.

According to the company's website, the Liberty Dollar is "inflation proof." The currency is loosely based on the principle of silver certificate, paper money that could be redeemed for an amount of silver coinage. The U.S. government stopped redeeming these notes in 1968 when the price of silver inflated past the value of the paper money. Bernard von NotHaus, 'money architect' of the Liberty Dollar, cites the inflation of the dollar as his reason for creating a new currency. Since its inception in 1998, twenty-million dollars in U.S. currency has been converted into Liberty Dollars.

Not everyone has been happy about the Liberty Dollars success. The United States Mint issued a statement on its website warning people that the Liberty Dollar is misleading in its similarities to legal tender and stating that "prosecutors with the Department of Justice have determined that the use of these gold and silver NORFED "Liberty Dollar" medallions as circulating money is a Federal crime." In response to this strong statement, Liberty Services brought a lawsuit against the U.S. Mint.

Thursday morning, von NotHaus sent a letter to supporters and holders of the Liberty Dollar detailing the morning raid. The letter, circulated on many blogs and posted at the Gold Seek website, breaks what for some could be very bad news. The seizure of Liberty Dollar assets leave many stranded with Liberty Dollars, which for the moment are no longer redeemable as silver or gold. "We have no money. We have no products. We have no records to even know what was ordered or what you are owed," said Bernard von NotHaus in a morning letter to supporters of the Liberty Dollar.

The Federal Governments reasons for the raid are unclear as is the future of the Liberty Dollar. "We have nothing but the will to push forward and overcome this massive assault on our liberty," von NotHaus writes. The Liberty Dollar website has not yet published a statement on the federal raid or the future of the currency. It has posted a link for currency holders to sign up for a class action lawsuit. "Everyone who has an unfulfilled order or has digital or paper currency should band together for a class action suit and demand redemption," exhorts von NotHaus. "You did nothing wrong. You are legally entitled to your property."
2007 © Associated Content, All rights reserved.

[Watchman63]

U.S. Raids Issuer of Ron Paul Coins
Gold Seized by Agents in Indiana
New York Sun

BY JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN - Staff Reporter of the Sun
November 16, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/66542

Federal agents, in a move that could have an impact on the presidential race, raided the Indiana office of the issuer of a private currency known as the Liberty Dollar — and seized tens of thousands of coins bearing the likeness of a presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul.

Overall, agents on Wednesday hauled away more than 2 tons of copper coins and 500 pounds of silver coins, as well as records and computers, the founder of the currency system, Bernard von NotHaus, told The New York Sun by phone from Miami. Although not present in Evansville, Ind., for the raid, Mr. von NotHaus said he has been told that the government agents left business cards from the FBI and Secret Service. Neither agency would confirm or deny the raid when contacted by the Sun.

The raid has the potential to alter the campaign of Mr. Paul, the Republican candidate of Texas whose visage appears on the more than 50,000 seized copper coins, as well as on lesser amounts of gold and silver coins. Mr. Paul is basing his presidential campaign in part on the argument that the federal government has been debasing the dollar. Mr. von NotHaus, a supporter of the presidential candidate, said he put Mr. Paul's image on the dollars to raise attention for the candidate. An eclectic nationwide crew of libertarians and coin enthusiasts exchange the coins.

"I thought, 'What can I do for him?'" Mr. von NotHaus said. "I'll do a dollar. It's 1 ounce of pure copper."

Yesterday, at the strip mall where Mr. von NotHaus's operation is housed, nearly a dozen Paul supporters carried campaign signs in an apparent protest, a television reporter for the local NBC affiliate, Brandon Bartlett, told the Sun. A spokesman for Mr. Paul's campaign, Jesse Benton, said the campaign wasn't "really paying that much attention" to the raid. "We don't have any official association" to the currency, he added.

The reason behind the raid is unclear. The Justice Department's position, according to a year-old consumer alert on the Web site of the United States Mint, is that using Liberty Dollars "as circulating money is a federal crime." Mint officials said the Liberty Dollar looks similar to legal tender, with inscriptions that say, "Trust in God" and "USA."

It's not clear, however, what the Justice Department's view is on the legality of possessing the coins for novelty or as protection against the declining value of government notes.

Mr. von NotHaus said he suspects the raid is in response to "the competition" his currency poses to the U.S. Mint. His Liberty Dollars, whose value is the price of the coin's metal, have proven a better investment in recent years than government issued notes, whose value has plummeted in relation to the price of gold.

"This is an example of Bernanke trying to protect his own nest because he knows it's got holes in it," Mr. von NotHaus said, referring to Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. "He can't have something like the Liberty Dollar running around competing with his currency. It points out the fallacy of the fiat monetary system. They had to do something. Their currency is losing and we're going to the moon."

Even into this century, long after government notes replaced the private notes of banks, private currency has long been a cause of certain influential figures, such as the economist Friedrich Hayek, a Nobel laureate who died in 1992.

So far, about $20 million worth of gold, silver, and copper Liberty Dollars and the accompanying certificates are circulating, Mr. von NotHaus said. Residents of Evansville say Liberty Dollars aren't often seen locally. But there is a national following, which includes some members of the Manhattan Libertarian Party. One member who had a hand in founding the currency, Nicolas Leobold, told the Sun last year that he's spent the Liberty Dollar at several New York locations, including a Gray's Papaya, a bodega near Grand Central Terminal, and a Dunkin' Donuts outlet.

With the Liberty Dollar, Mr. von NotHaus seeks to reintroduce the kind of economic debate that Mr. Paul has been nursing for years. When Mr. Paul was a member of the United States Gold Commission, he wrote, with Lewis Lehrman, a famous dissenting opinion in favor of the restoration of a role for gold in the U.S. monetary system. The bearer certificates issued with silver Liberty Dollars say that using the coinage is an exercise of "the bearer's First Amendment right to petition the government for a silver-based currency," Mr. von NotHaus said.

Mr. von NotHaus said the raid lasted six hours beginning at 8 a.m. and involved about a dozen agents from the Secret Service and FBI. The local U.S. attorney's office referred all calls to the U.S. attorney for the western district of North Carolina. A spokeswoman there said she could not confirm or deny any raid.

An employee at the gun store at the same strip mall as the Liberty Dollar office confirmed that officers had been present Wednesday.
"There were guys in uniform and some in suits, and they hauled a bunch of stuff out of there," the employee of Strictly Shooting, who asked not to be identified, said.

The Liberty Dollars are but one example of private currencies that have been used in American history. In the 1930s, "wooden nickels" circulated out West. In Michigan, there were so-called wildcat banks in the 1830s that printed paper money without backing by gold or silver reserve.

In addition to silver and copper coins, agents seized more than 3 pounds of gold and several ounces of platinum, Mr. von NotHaus said. All that coinage, as well as bearer certificates held at the Evansville office, belonged to purchasers of the currency. In an e-mail message, Mr. von NotHaus urged the owners of the seized currency and seized bearer certificates to file suit against the government. Mr. von NotHaus has already sued government officials for issuing the "consumer alert" against his currency last year.

The impact, if any, on Mr. Paul's presidential campaign is difficult to predict. On the one hand, he could be criticized for permitting, if he did permit, his face to be used on a coin whose circulation the U.S. Mint contends is illegal. On the other, the raid could throw into even sharper relief the argument he has been making for sound currency. Videos of Mr. Paul cross-examining Mr. Bernanke in recent congressional hearings have been widely viewed on the Internet.
Libertarians React to the Raid

Libertarian reaction was negative to news of the law enforcement activity in Evansville. Blay Tarnoff, a former chairman of the Libertarian Party of New York, a statewide organization, said he could not think of any good rationale for the raid as long as the company issuing Liberty Dollars was not misrepresenting their coins as government currency. "People can trade anything they want of value," he said. "It wouldn't surprise me if the government would want to seize Liberty Dollars if they believed that people were actually beginning to use them."

An East Village resident who was co-creator of the Ron Paul dollar, Nicolas Leobold, said the raid was like "the behavior of a schoolyard bully."

A regional currency officer for the Liberty Dollar in south-central Pennsylvania, Pete Hallock, said he had ordered silver dollars in various denominations and would probably never get his money back. He said, "I don't like it when my money is stolen whether it is the federal government or anyone else." He added, "Why should I be penalized?"

Not surprisingly, independent-minded libertarians have varying opinions on the Liberty Dollars themselves. The chair of the Libertarian Party of New York, Jeff Russell of Saratoga County, said the Liberty coinage should bear descriptions such as "one ounce of silver" and not bear the term dollar at all.

- Gary Shapiro

November 16, 2007 Edition > Section: National > Printer-Friendly Version

[Watchman63]

I would say that this event is a real shot across the bow for many of us.

http://www.military-today.com/navy/nimitz_class.jpg

[Dig]

Seeing as Pat Tillman took 3 shots to the head defending freedom, our sacrifices are miniscule.

They have shot across the bow, they have shot at the bow, they have blown out the rudder.

Hey police forces that are doing this shit, watch end game and understand that you will be taken out as well.

[Dig]

U.S. Raids Issuer of Ron Paul Coins - Gold Seized by Agents in Indiana

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN Staff Reporter of the Sun November 16, 2007

Federal agents, in a move that could have an impact on the presidential race, raided the Indiana office of the issuer of a private currency known as the Liberty Dollar — and seized tens of thousands of coins bearing the likeness of a presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul. Overall, agents on Wednesday hauled away more than 2 tons of copper coins and 500 pounds of silver coins, as well as records and computers, the founder of the currency system, Bernard von NotHaus, told The New York Sun by phone from Miami. Although not present in Evansville, Ind., for the raid, Mr. von NotHaus said he has been told that the government agents left business cards from the FBI and Secret Service. Neither agency would confirm or deny the raid when contacted by the Sun. The raid has the potential to alter the campaign of Mr. Paul, the Republican candidate of Texas whose visage appears on the more than 50,000 seized copper coins, as well as on lesser amounts of gold and silver coins. Mr. Paul is basing his presidential campaign in part on the argument that the federal government has been debasing the dollar. Mr. von NotHaus, a supporter of the presidential candidate, said he put Mr. Paul's image on the dollars to raise attention for the candidate. An eclectic nationwide crew of libertarians and coin enthusiasts exchange the coins.

"I thought, 'What can I do for him?'" Mr. von NotHaus said. "I'll do a dollar. It's 1 ounce of pure copper." Yesterday, at the strip mall where Mr. von NotHaus's operation is housed, nearly a dozen Paul supporters carried campaign signs in an apparent protest, a television reporter for the local NBC affiliate, Brandon Bartlett, told the Sun. A spokesman for Mr. Paul's campaign, Jesse Benton, said the campaign wasn't "really paying that much attention" to the raid. "We don't have any official association" to the currency, he added. The reason behind the raid is unclear. The Justice Department's position, according to a year-old consumer alert on the Web site of the United States Mint, is that using Liberty Dollars "as circulating money is a federal crime." Mint officials said the Liberty Dollar looks similar to legal tender, with inscriptions that say, "Trust in God" and "USA."

It's not clear, however, what the Justice Department's view is on the legality of possessing the coins for novelty or as protection against the declining value of government notes. Mr. von NotHaus said he suspects the raid is in response to "the competition" his currency poses to the U.S. Mint. His Liberty Dollars, whose value is the price of the coin's metal, have proven a better investment in recent years than government issued notes, whose value has plummeted in relation to the price of gold. "This is an example of Bernanke trying to protect his own nest because he knows it's got holes in it," Mr. von NotHaus said, referring to Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. "He can't have something like the Liberty Dollar running around competing with his currency. It points out the fallacy of the fiat monetary system. They had to do something. Their currency is losing and we're going to the moon."

Even into this century, long after government notes replaced the private notes of banks, private currency has long been a cause of certain influential figures, such as the economist Friedrich Hayek, a Nobel laureate who died in 1992. So far, about $20 million worth of gold, silver, and copper Liberty Dollars and the accompanying certificates are circulating, Mr. von NotHaus said. Residents of Evansville say Liberty Dollars aren't often seen locally. But there is a national following, which includes some members of the Manhattan Libertarian Party. One member who had a hand in founding the currency, Nicolas Leobold, told the Sun last year that he's spent the Liberty Dollar at several New York locations, including a Gray's Papaya, a bodega near Grand Central Terminal, and a Dunkin' Donuts outlet.

With the Liberty Dollar, Mr. von NotHaus seeks to reintroduce the kind of economic debate that Mr. Paul has been nursing for years. When Mr. Paul was a member of the United States Gold Commission, he wrote, with Lewis Lehrman, a famous dissenting opinion in favor of the restoration of a role for gold in the U.S. monetary system. The bearer certificates issued with silver Liberty Dollars say that using the coinage is an exercise of "the bearer's First Amendment right to petition the government for a silver-based currency," Mr. von NotHaus said. Mr. von NotHaus said the raid lasted six hours beginning at 8 a.m. and involved about a dozen agents from the Secret Service and FBI. The local U.S. attorney's office referred all calls to the U.S. attorney for the western district of North Carolina. A spokeswoman there said she could not confirm or deny any raid.

An employee at the gun store at the same strip mall as the Liberty Dollar office confirmed that officers had been present Wednesday.  "There were guys in uniform and some in suits, and they hauled a bunch of stuff out of there," the employee of Strictly Shooting, who asked not to be identified, said. The Liberty Dollars are but one example of private currencies that have been used in American history. In the 1930s, "wooden nickels" circulated out West. In Michigan, there were so-called wildcat banks in the 1830s that printed paper money without backing by gold or silver reserve.

In addition to silver and copper coins, agents seized more than 3 pounds of gold and several ounces of platinum, Mr. von NotHaus said. All that coinage, as well as bearer certificates held at the Evansville office, belonged to purchasers of the currency. In an e-mail message, Mr. von NotHaus urged the owners of the seized currency and seized bearer certificates to file suit against the government. Mr. von NotHaus has already sued government officials for issuing the "consumer alert" against his currency last year. The impact, if any, on Mr. Paul's presidential campaign is difficult to predict. On the one hand, he could be criticized for permitting, if he did permit, his face to be used on a coin whose circulation the U.S. Mint contends is illegal. On the other, the raid could throw into even sharper relief the argument he has been making for sound currency. Videos of Mr. Paul cross-examining Mr. Bernanke in recent congressional hearings have been widely viewed on the Internet.

Libertarians React to the Raid
Libertarian reaction was negative to news of the law enforcement activity in Evansville. Blay Tarnoff, a former chairman of the Libertarian Party of New York, a statewide organization, said he could not think of any good rationale for the raid as long as the company issuing Liberty Dollars was not misrepresenting their coins as government currency. "People can trade anything they want of value," he said. "It wouldn't surprise me if the government would want to seize Liberty Dollars if they believed that people were actually beginning to use them."

An East Village resident who was co-creator of the Ron Paul dollar, Nicolas Leobold, said the raid was like "the behavior of a schoolyard bully." A regional currency officer for the Liberty Dollar in south-central Pennsylvania, Pete Hallock, said he had ordered silver dollars in various denominations and would probably never get his money back. He said, "I don't like it when my money is stolen whether it is the federal government or anyone else." He added, "Why should I be penalized?" Not surprisingly, independent-minded libertarians have varying opinions on the Liberty Dollars themselves. The chair of the Libertarian Party of New York, Jeff Russell of Saratoga County, said the Liberty coinage should bear descriptions such as "one ounce of silver" and not bear the term dollar at all. - Gary Shapiro

[Erdrix]

Just got this in my email.  I didn't see it posted yet.


________________________

Friday, November 16, 2007: Make no mistake, the FBI and Secret Service raid on he Liberty Dollar at 8:00 AM on Wednesday, was a direct assault against the US onstitution and your right to own and use gold and silver in any way you chose.

I personally spoke to FBI agent Andrew Romagnuolo shortly after he and his gang invaded the peaceful home of the Liberty Dollar. He told me that the raid was related to the US Mint's warning and the beginning of a criminal investigation. This is the first battle of a long war that I intend to win!
Please note the Search Warrant, Seizure Warrant and Agent info is now posted. Click HERE for that info. If that link does not work the URL is: http://www.libertydollar.org/ld/legal/raid.htm.

Also posted is the correspondence between US Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and Edmond C Moy, Director of the US Mint. Of particular interest is Moy's statement that the! paper Certificates are not covered by the Title 18, Section 486 and hence legal. So there was no need to raid Sunshine Mint and confiscate all the gold and silver that backs the paper and digital currencies.
No need, unless the government knew their 486 case didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning and needed to expand their case into the never-never land of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering as mentioned in the Seizure Warrant. I anticipate being arrested on any one or all of these charges.

But I see my arrest and trial as a golden opportunity to win and return our great country to a value based currency. I sincerely believe that the right creative marketer could orchestrate an effective counter attack and win big. I believe the Liberty Dollar will win and become one of the great institutions in America. I have devoted the past ten year to the Liberty Dollar and am willing to risk a few years in federal prison to vindicate it. Winni! ng is certainly possible, even probable with your help.
Wi! nning wi ll require good, dedicated legal support and your support. First, if you are angry and resent the government's assault on your right to own and use gold as you please then call the agents and express your displeasure of their actions in a polite way. Don't kill the messenger, just tell them they are wrong. Add your voice to this movement.

Second: If you are owed an order and want to get your money back or have paper certificates or digital Liberty Dollars, I urge you to demand redemption or the return of your money by joining the Class Action Lawsuit. Your participation is absolutely critical. If you don't join the CAL you will not get your money back. Please click HERE to sign up for the Class Action Lawsuit. If that link does not work, the URL is: http://www.libertydollar.org/classaction/index.php.
Third: A Legal Defense Fund will be established very soon. Its purpose is to win the cr! iminal case and get your money back. It will take money to make it successful. So your contribution is also critical. Please don't let the government steal your money.

So if you have an existing order, want to redeem your paper Certificates or digital Liberty Dollars, please join the fight to defend our right to own and use gold as you so chose and sign up for the Class Action Lawsuit. This is the
only way you will get your stolen property back.
If you have no standing and want to finally get involved, no problem. There is still $20 million Liberty Dollars in circulation. Simply get some paper Liberty Dollars and sign up for the Class Action Lawsuit. There is still time for all the thick-headed Lewrockwellites, Markskousenites, Dougcaseyites and Agoraites to pull your head out and get 'right' on this important issue.

I regret to inform you that the Liberty Dollar office is now closed. The government boys took everything except for t! he desks and chairs. We have no stock, no records, no money. I! can' ;t even change the phone message because they took the phone manuals. Nor can I answer the thousands of email and calls from a national organization that now numbers into the hundreds of thousands. I am the last man standing. I need your help.
Thank you for your many offers of help. Now is the time for us to help our selves and our great country as it faces the greatest monetary challenge since the Revolutionary War. Buying gold and silver is good for you, but it will not solve our country's problems.

Government requires participation. The problems we have today are because our parents did not participate. Please keep using the Liberty Dollar. Keep the ideals and benefits of real money alive. Gold and silver is going to be very rewarding as the US dollar disintegrates. Please join the Class Action Lawsuit and give something to the Legal Defense Fund when it is established.
But you don't have to wait. Donations can be sent to the old address as the ma! il is now being forwarded. Of course we will still accept Liberty Dollars, but unfortunately due to the current situation, the attorneys require those dreaded depreciating US dollars.

Please make your check or money order out to me as there is no other bank account and mail it to: Liberty Dollar, 225 N. Stockwell Road. Evansville. Indiana. 47715.
Now is the time to band together and support our fight for value based currency as never before. Now is the time to throw off the yoke of a manipulated monetary/tax system and generate a peaceful and prosperous society.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your offer of help, prayers and support.

The Liberty Dollar and our great country sincerely needs your support.
God bless you and our great country!

Bernard von NotHaus
Monetary Architect

Go Here to Be Added to E-mail List

Alert Send on No! v 15 200 7
US Mint - Paper is legal (Click to View PDF)Search Warrent (Click to View PDF)

Seizure Warrent (Click to View PDF)Agent Information (Click to View PDF)
Click to View Local Article

[JConner]

This is one reason why your gold and silver need to be physically located where YOU have control of it, not 'banked' by another party...

caveat

[Spectre]

Latest email received from B von N:



Friday, November 16, 2007: Make no mistake, the FBI and Secret Service raid on he Liberty Dollar at 8:00 AM on Wednesday, was a direct assault against the US onstitution and your right to own and use gold and silver in any way you chose.

I personally spoke to FBI agent Andrew Romagnuolo shortly after he and his gang invaded the peaceful home of the Liberty Dollar. He told me that the raid was related to the US Mint's warning and the beginning of a criminal investigation. This is the first battle of a long war that I intend to win!

Please note the Search Warrant, Seizure Warrant and Agent info is now posted. Click HERE for that info. If that link does not work the URL is: http://www.libertydollar.org/ld/legal/raid.htm.

Also posted is the correspondence between US Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and Edmond C Moy, Director of the US Mint. Of particular interest is Moy's statement that the! paper Certificates are not covered by the Title 18, Section 486 and hence legal. So there was no need to raid Sunshine Mint and confiscate all the gold and silver that backs the paper and digital currencies.

No need, unless the government knew their 486 case didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning and needed to expand their case into the never-never land of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering as mentioned in the Seizure Warrant. I anticipate being arrested on any one or all of these charges.

But I see my arrest and trial as a golden opportunity to win and return our great country to a value based currency. I sincerely believe that the right creative marketer could orchestrate an effective counter attack and win big. I believe the Liberty Dollar will win and become one of the great institutions in America. I have devoted the past ten year to the Liberty Dollar and am willing to risk a few years in federal prison to vindicate it. Winni! ng is certainly possible, even probable with your help.

Wi! nning wi ll require good, dedicated legal support and your support. First, if you are angry and resent the government's assault on your right to own and use gold as you please then call the agents and express your displeasure of their actions in a polite way. Don't kill the messenger, just tell them they are wrong. Add your voice to this movement.

Second: If you are owed an order and want to get your money back or have paper certificates or digital Liberty Dollars, I urge you to demand redemption or the return of your money by joining the Class Action Lawsuit. Your participation is absolutely critical. If you don't join the CAL you will not get your money back. Please click HERE to sign up for the Class Action Lawsuit. If that link does not work, the URL is: http://www.libertydollar.org/classaction/index.php.

Third: A Legal Defense Fund will be established very soon. Its purpose is to win the cr! iminal case and get your money back. It will take money to make it successful. So your contribution is also critical. Please don't let the government steal your money.

So if you have an existing order, want to redeem your paper Certificates or digital Liberty Dollars, please join the fight to defend our right to own and use gold as you so chose and sign up for the Class Action Lawsuit. This is the
only way you will get your stolen property back.

If you have no standing and want to finally get involved, no problem. There is still $20 million Liberty Dollars in circulation. Simply get some paper Liberty Dollars and sign up for the Class Action Lawsuit. There is still time for all the thick-headed Lewrockwellites, Markskousenites, Dougcaseyites and Agoraites to pull your head out and get 'right' on this important issue.

I regret to inform you that the Liberty Dollar office is now closed. The government boys took everything except for t! he desks and chairs. We have no stock, no records, no money. I! can' ;t even change the phone message because they took the phone manuals. Nor can I answer the thousands of email and calls from a national organization that now numbers into the hundreds of thousands. I am the last man standing. I need your help.

Thank you for your many offers of help. Now is the time for us to help our selves and our great country as it faces the greatest monetary challenge since the Revolutionary War. Buying gold and silver is good for you, but it will not solve our country's problems.

Government requires participation. The problems we have today are because our parents did not participate. Please keep using the Liberty Dollar. Keep the ideals and benefits of real money alive. Gold and silver is going to be very rewarding as the US dollar disintegrates. Please join the Class Action Lawsuit and give something to the Legal Defense Fund when it is established.

But you don't have to wait. Donations can be sent to the old address as the ma! il is now being forwarded. Of course we will still accept Liberty Dollars, but unfortunately due to the current situation, the attorneys require those dreaded depreciating US dollars.

Please make your check or money order out to me as there is no other bank account and mail it to: Liberty Dollar, 225 N. Stockwell Road. Evansville. Indiana. 47715.

Now is the time to band together and support our fight for value based currency as never before. Now is the time to throw off the yoke of a manipulated monetary/tax system and generate a peaceful and prosperous society.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your offer of help, prayers and support.

The Liberty Dollar and our great country sincerely needs your support.

God bless you and our great country!

Bernard von NotHaus
Monetary Architect

[chilicharger665]

Absolutely, banks are the reason we're in such deep crap in the first place!

[Erdrix]

Good thing that a good chunk was in coins and as I understand it alot of them are in circulation.


Erdrix

[Sasha]

TV news coverage of the Ron Paul Liberty Dollar raid

LRC Blog
November 16, 2007

“My name is Phil Schmitt and I am the organizer of the Ron Paul Meetup in Evansville, IN; home of the Liberty Dollar. A dedicated fellow member of the group, Brad Linzy, posted these two local newscast covering the Liberty Dollar Raid. He is also the man on the scene that they interviewed…The Fox affiliate actually did a pretty good job and are to be commended.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_sSipUrBG0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg8P9dNXTEg

--------------
from MySpacers:
*RC_REVOLUTION [resistance]
truth09
truth junkie

[Dig]

RON PAUL COINS SEIZED BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: CNN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKgCNnf3sZ0

[Dig]

NH reaction to FBI Liberty Dollar raid (1 of 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjQBSgnsaMo

[Dig]

In Ron Paul Coins, Federal Agents Don't Trust
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/11/16/post_203.html?hpid=topnews
Rep. Ron Paul, candidate and currency.


As if Ron Paul's supporters needed any more motivation to storm the battlements and wreak havoc on the Republican presidential primary, now comes this: the feds are trying to take away their money.[Get ready for some serious blowback!]

Federal agents on Wednesday raided the Evansville, Indiana headquarters of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Codes (NORFED), an organization of "sound money" advocates that for the past decade has been selling what it calls Liberty Dollars, a private currency it says is backed by silver and gold stored in Idaho, with a total of more than $20 million in circulation, according to the group. NORFED officials said yesterday that the raid occurred just as they were preparing to mail out the first batch of about 60,000 "Ron Paul Dollars," copper coins sold for $1 and decorated with the craggy visage of Paul, the libertarian Texas congressman, Iraq war opponent and sound-money advocate who has sparked a surprisingly vigorous insurgent campaign for the GOP nomination. The group says that it in recent months it already shipped out about 10,000 in silver Ron Paul dollars that sold for $20.

Bernard von NotHaus, NORFED's founder and executive director, said in an interview from his home in Miami Friday night that his employees in Evansville had received the copper dollars late last week and managed to mail out only about 3,500 of them so far. After a six-hour raid, he said, the agents left with the rest of the coins, which weighed about two tons total, as well as smaller amounts of silver Ron Paul dollars, gold Ron Paul dollars that sell for $1,000 and platinum Ron Paul dollars that sell for $2,000. There was a separate raid, NotHaus said, of Sunshine Mint in Coer D'Alene, Idaho, a company that prints the organization's coins, where von NotHaus said agents seized the huge pallets of silver and gold worth more than $1 million that the organization says back the paper certificates issued to its customers. "They took everything, all of the computers, everything but the desks and chairs," said von NotHaus, who says he served 25 years as the mintmaster for the Royal Hawaiian Mint. "The federal government really is afraid." The Indianapolis branch of the FBI declined to comment on the raid and referred calls to the U.S. Attorney's office for Western North Carolina in Charlotte. That office's spokeswoman, Suellen Pierce, also declined to comment. But bloggers at the libertarian Reason Foundation posted on-line a 35-page copy affidavit for a search warrant filed last week with the Western District in Asheville laying out the government's case against NORFED. Pierce said that the search warrant in the case had been accidentally made public by a court clerk and has since been sealed, under court rules.

In the affidavit, an FBI special agent states that he is investigating NORFED for federal violations including "uttering coins of gold, silver, or other metal," "making or possessing likeness of coins," mail fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. "The goal of NORFED is to undermine the United States government's financial systems by the issuance of a non-governmental competing currency for the purpose of repealing the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code," he states. The agent states that the investigation started two years ago. And the U.S. Mint a year ago issued a warning against using the Liberty Dollar, prompting a lawsuit by NORFED. But that has not kept Liberty Dollar fans from speculating on-line that the raid was prompted by Paul's strong campaign -- which recently raised more than $4 million in a single day -- or by the precipitous recent decline in the value of the dollar. A Paul campaign spokeswoman, Kerri Price, said yesterday that while Paul also supports abolishing the Federal Reserve, the campaign "does not have any affiliation with Liberty Dollars at all." von NotHaus confirmed this, saying that he knows Paul because they "move in the same circles" but that he had expressly not talked with Paul about his plans for the special coins so as not to violate federal election rules.

But the coins have been another rallying point for Paul's supporters, who have asked Paul to pose for photographs with the coins on the campaign trail. Jim Forsythe, a Paul organizer in New Hampshire who ordered 150 of the copper Ron Paul dollars, said yesterday that the seizure of the coins would likely fuel more support for Paul, who scores close to double-digits in some New Hampshire polls. "People are pretty upset about this," he said. "The dollar is going down the tubes and this is something that can protect the value of their money and the Federal Reserve is threatened by that. It'll definitely fire people up."Von NotHaus, meanwhile, is urging Liberty Dollar supporters to express their outrage by donating to Paul, saying on the group's Web site that "in light of this assault on our financial freedom, it is clear that we need Ron Paul to lead this country more than ever." He said that all of his bank accounts have been frozen and that he expects that a federal indictment will soon be in the offing, saying that "once the federal government starts an investigation like this and takes it to a grand jury, they can indict a ham sandwich." Should he be charged, he said, "I'll turn it into my golden opportunity to validate the Liberty Dollar as a legal lawful currency and save the country from a monetary collapse."What he's most concerned about for now, though, is the thought of all his customers waiting for their Ron Paul dollars. "People aren't going to get their orders, and they aren't going to get them for a while," he said.  That is good news, of course, for those already holding the coins. On eBay, the silver Ron Paul dollars that were purchased for $20 were selling for more than $170 last night.--Alec MacGillis

[Femacamper]

They can steal our money, kill our bodies, but they can take away our ideas and ideals!
Truth will win!

[hellcatjr]

This sucks.

I swear I'm so pissed off at the people before me. I grew up believing in something that was obviously not the truth! After months upon months of my own personal research I come to find all of the things out that I wish I had known while going through highschool (I'm 21 now).

I'd of invested my money into hard, coined cash rather then bullshit that was jammed down my throat by media corporations.

I swear I had thought a few days ago too that I should buy some Liberty coins. I had intended to do so upon getting my next check (which comes on thursdays  ) regardless, I was hoping to snag a few silver coins... and now this shit happens.

Go figure.

Why can't these scums fight each other? It'd make for a better show, and it'd sell to the masses. 

[stymo1]

Home / News / Local 
Police to search for guns in homes
City program depends on parental consent
 By Maria Cramer
Globe Staff / November 17, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/17/police_to_search_for_guns_in_homes/

Boston police are launching a program that will call upon parents in high-crime neighborhoods to allow detectives into their homes, without a warrant, to search for guns in their children's bedrooms.

more stories like thisThe program, which is already raising questions about civil liberties, is based on the premise that parents are so fearful of gun violence and the possibility that their own teenagers will be caught up in it that they will turn to police for help, even in their own households.

In the next two weeks, Boston police officers who are assigned to schools will begin going to homes where they believe teenagers might have guns. The officers will travel in groups of three, dress in plainclothes to avoid attracting negative attention, and ask the teenager's parent or legal guardian for permission to search. If the parents say no, police said, the officers will leave.

If officers find a gun, police said, they will not charge the teenager with unlawful gun possession, unless the firearm is linked to a shooting or homicide.

The program was unveiled yesterday by Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis in a meeting with several community leaders.

globe graphic Pilot neighborhoods in search program 

"I just have a queasy feeling anytime the police try to do an end run around the Constitution," said Thomas Nolan, a former Boston police lieutenant who now teaches criminology at Boston University. "The police have restrictions on their authority and ability to conduct searches. The Constitution was written with a very specific intent, and that was to keep the law out of private homes unless there is a written document signed by a judge and based on probable cause. Here, you don't have that."

Critics said they worry that some residents will be too intimidated by a police presence on their doorstep to say no to a search.

"Our biggest concern is the notion of informed consent," said Amy Reichbach, a racial justice advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union. "People might not understand the implications of weapons being tested or any contraband being found."

But Davis said the point of the program, dubbed Safe Homes, is to make streets safer, not to incarcerate people.

"This isn't evidence that we're going to present in a criminal case," said Davis, who met with community leaders yesterday to get feedback on the program. "This is a seizing of a very dangerous object. . . .

"I understand people's concerns about this, but the mothers of the young men who have been arrested with firearms that I've talked to are in a quandary," he said. "They don't know what to do when faced with the problem of dealing with a teenage boy in possession of a firearm. We're giving them an option in that case."

But some activists questioned whether the program would reduce the number of weapons on the street.

A criminal whose gun is seized can quickly obtain another, said Jorge Martinez, executive director of Project Right, who Davis briefed on the program earlier this week.

"There is still an individual who is an impact player who is not going to change because you've taken the gun from the household," he said.

The program will focus on juveniles 17 and younger and is modeled on an effort started in 1994 by the St. Louis Police Department, which stopped the program in 1999 partly because funding ran out.

Police said they will not search the homes of teenagers they suspect have been involved in shootings or homicides and who investigators are trying to prosecute.

"In a case where we have investigative leads or there is an impact player that we know has been involved in serious criminal activity, we will pursue investigative leads against them and attempt to get into that house with a search warrant, so we can hold them accountable," Davis said.

Police will rely primarily on tips from neighbors. They will also follow tips from the department's anonymous hot line and investigators' own intelligence to decide what doors to knock on. A team of about 12 officers will visit homes in four Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods: Grove Hall, Bowdoin Street and Geneva Avenue, Franklin Hill and Franklin Field, and Egleston Square.

If drugs are found, it will be up to the officers' discretion whether to make an arrest, but police said modest amounts of drugs like marijuana will simply be confiscated and will not lead to charges.

"A kilo of cocaine would not be considered modest," said Elaine Driscoll, Davis's spokeswoman. "The officers that have been trained have been taught discretion."

The program will target young people whose parents are either afraid to confront them or unaware that they might be stashing weapons, said Davis, who has been trying to gain support from community leaders for the past several weeks.

One of the first to back him was the Rev. Jeffrey L. Brown, cofounder of the Boston TenPoint Coalition, who attended yesterday's meeting.

"What I like about this program is it really is a tool to empower the parent," he said. "It's a way in which they can get a hold of the household and say, 'I don't want that in my house.' "

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley, whose support was crucial for police to guarantee there would be no prosecution, also agreed to back the initiative. "To me it's a preventive tool," he said.

Boston police officials touted the success of the St. Louis program's first year, when 98 percent of people approached gave consent and St. Louis police seized guns from about half of the homes they searched.

St. Louis police reassured skeptics by letting them observe searches, said Robert Heimberger, a retired St. Louis police sergeant who was part of the program.

"We had parents that invited us back, and a couple of them nearly insisted that we take keys to their house and come back anytime we wanted," he said.

]WTF??!!![/

But the number of people who gave consent plunged in the next four years, as the police chief who spearheaded the effort left and department support fell, according to a report published by the National Institute of Justice.

Support might also have flagged because over time police began to rely more on their own intelligence than on neighborhood tips, the report said.

Heimberger said the program also suffered after clergy leaders who were supposed to offer help to parents never appeared.

"I became frustrated when I'd get the second, or third, or fourth phone call from someone who said, 'No one has come to talk to me,' " he said. Residents "lost faith in the program and that hurt us."

Boston police plan to hold neighborhood meetings to inform the public about the program. Police are also promising follow-up visits from clergy or social workers, and they plan to allow the same scrutiny that St. Louis did.

"We want the community to know what we're doing," Driscoll said.

Ronald Odom - whose son, Steven, 13, was fatally shot last month as he walked home from basketball practice - was at yesterday's meeting and said the program is a step in the right direction. "Everyone talks about curbing violence," he said, following the meeting. ". . . This is definitely a head start."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.



Sure, this time is voluntary....what about the next?[/b]

[Spectre]

(This article contains a link to see a pdf of the actual affidavit)


Mistakenly disclosed affidavit outlines case against Liberty Dollar

By: CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Gold Anti-Trust Action Committe Inc.

Posted Sunday, 18 November 2007


Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The federal raid on the Liberty Dollar organization was the product of an elaborate undercover operation and was based on a claim that Liberty Dollar's products were "intended for use as current money" in violation of Title 18, Section 486, of the United States Code.

The government's complaint is outlined in the raid's seizure warrant affidavit, which was temporarily disclosed by accident in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then posted on the Internet by vigilant libertarians. The affidavit can be found here:

http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/meckdeck/pdfs/USAVLibdoll.pdf

The government's complaint also alleges that Liberty Dollar's marketing practices justify charges of mail fraud and money laundering.

But the government's main objection seems to be what it considers excessive similarity between government-issued coins and what Liberty Dollar calls its medallions, which, the government contends, causes the medallions to be mistaken for government currency.

This case will be important for its bearing on constitutional law and individual rights to possess and trade in gold, silver, and copper, even as it may turn on the issue of likeness. Liberty Dollar might be in a stronger position if it did not use the word "dollar" or the dollar sign on its medallions and instead denominated its medallions only by weight in metal. Still, it is hard to see how people could be deceived into thinking that the Liberty Dollar products are issued by the government and are legal tender "for all debts, public and private," rather than devices for barter.

In any event Bill King, editor of The King Report, may have had the most telling observation on the controversy: that the government would have had no problem with the Liberty Dollar organization if, like the wildly unregulated gangsters in the Wall Street financial houses, it had been pushing collateralized debt obligations instead of honest money.

A Washington Post Weblog story that disclosed the libertarians' posting of the Liberty Dollar raid affidavit is appended.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

* * *

More...
http://news.goldseek.com/GATA/1195420514.php

[Erdrix]

"We had parents that invited us back, and a couple of them nearly insisted that we take keys to their house and come back anytime we wanted," he said.

Here's the keys to my house and car.  You can have anything in the fridge and the rights to my wife...are we safe yet?  Well how much more until we're safe?

[Riian]

Article & COMMENT here:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/16/illegal-ron-paul-currency-seized/#more-3197

Of course CNN gives it a title like:

Illegal Ron Paul currency seized

EVANSVILLE, Indiana (AP) — Federal agents raided the headquarters of a group that produces illegal currency and puts it in circulation, seizing gold, silver and two tons of copper coins featuring Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Agents also took records, computers and froze the bank accounts at the "Liberty Dollar" headquarters during the Thursday raid, Bernard von NotHaus, founder of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act & Internal Revenue Code, said in a posting on the group's Web site.

The organization, which is critical of the Federal Reserve, has repeatedly clashed with the federal government, which contends that the gold, silver and copper coins it produces are illegal. NORFED claims its Liberty Dollars are inflation free and can restore stability to financial markets by allowing commerce based on a currency that does not fluctuate in value like the U.S. dollar.

"They're running scared right now and they had to do something," von NotHaus told The Associated Press Friday. "I'm volunteering to meet the agents and get arrested so we can thrash this out in court."

Wendy Osborne, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Indianapolis office, declined to comment and referred all questions to the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of North Carolina. Suellen Pierce, a spokeswoman for that office, also declined to comment.

The raid comes eight months after von NotHaus filed a lawsuit in federal court in Evansville seeking a permanent injunction to stop the federal government from labeling the Liberty Dollar an illegal currency.

The U.S. Mint issued a warning this year that the Liberty Dollar violated the Constitution and warned consumers against using them unsuspectingly.

Paul's campaign said it had not authorized production of the Ron Paul dollars.

"We were aware they existed, but we didn't have any affiliation with them," said Jesse Benton, a spokesman for Ron Paul's campaign. "He didn't ask our permission to make them."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That way idiots like this leave comments like this:

No wonder Ron has raised so much money in one day! Busted!!!

Posted By Val Davydov, Agawam, MA : November 16, 2007 12:43 pm


PLEASE go leave positive comments from educated folks like this:

U.S. Constitution- Article I, section 10

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; MAKE ANY THING BUT GOLD AND SILVER COIN A TENDER IN PAYMENT OF DEBTS; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

FEDS are out of line on this.

Posted By Kendrick Hamilton, NJ : November 16, 2007 1:40 pm

OR THIS

Good Lord CNN, I knew you sometimes skewed things a bit, but this is going too far. First off, the header implicates it is Ron Paul's money, when in fact it is gold and silver coins with his likeness on them. And he did not even give them his permission to use his likeness! Then, in the first sentence, you just claim that these coins are illegal, when in fact it has not been decided in court whether or not they are actually illegal. Last time I checked the US Mint does not get to determine what is legal and what is not. I guess you are saying if you get arrested you are presumed guilty. Whatever political 'editor' came up with this drivel should be ashamed, unless they're proud of the fact they'd make a great propagandist in Communist China. I am sure this little comment will not be published, but for whoever the 'moderator' is, please grow a conscience and quit your job working for this propaganda machine. You'll feel better not being part of the problem.

Posted By Ben, Chicago IL : November 16, 2007 12:28 pm


That way MSM regulars might see that they are being force fed BULLSHIT.  It's recieved 166 comments at this point.  Most people can see right through this one.

[geopri]

hello,
i got an issue here. i wish Mr. von NotHaus would have let everyone know the govt put out a Cease and Desist Order on his business. then i would have taken delivery of my silver. instead i feel like i got double burned.

[Tomslik]

First Time Poster,


Maybe I am missing something here; but it seems like the "Fed" had no reason to confiscate the precious metals.  It seems logical to investigate all records from clients and transactions.  However, the stories I have been reading are very contradictory.  The first story the FBI gave was in regards to credit card fraud, and the second had to do with the "secondary currency" issue.  Which story will they stick to? 

Another question is:

If the Federal Reserve is a private institution;  how can they confiscate secondary currency?  The Federal government gave up the ability to print coinage in 1917, correct?  In my "guesstimation,"  there is no official national currency.  Does this make any sense to anyone else?

[Canshine]

First Time Poster,


Maybe I am missing something here; but it seems like the "Fed" had no reason to confiscate the precious metals.  It seems logical to investigate all records from clients and transactions.  However, the stories I have been reading are very contradictory.  The first story the FBI gave was in regards to credit card fraud, and the second had to do with the "secondary currency" issue.  Which story will they stick to? 

Another question is:

If the Federal Reserve is a private institution;  how can they confiscate secondary currency?  The Federal government gave up the ability to print coinage in 1917, correct?  In my "guesstimation,"  there is no official national currency.  Does this make any sense to anyone else?

It's because they have guns and are willing to use them.
The same principal is how they insure their fiat paper has value.
Guns and thugs.

www.canshine.com

[Dig]

If It's Good Enough For Mickey, Why Not For Paul?
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/11/19/if_its_good_enough_for_mickey.html

Pirate's booty valid at Walt Disney World. (Walt Disney World News).

News of a federal raid last week on a "sound money" outfit that is selling "Ron Paul Dollars," reported in Saturday's Post, is generating no end of quips in the blogosphere about what this development says about the Paul campaign's eye-popping recent fundraising success. Wags ask: How much of that record $4.2 million one-day haul that Paul collected earlier this month actually came in the form of dubloons imprinted with Paul's face, not U.S. legal tender?

But these jokes may be missing the point entirely. In fact, the lack of confidence that many Paul supporters have in U.S. currency may well be one reason why they are sending so many of their greenbacks to Paul's campaign, and thereby making his outsider libertarian bid for the Republican presidential nomination a force to be reckoned with. For sound-money supporters who fear a coming collapse in the value of the dollar, it makes eminent sense to send a few hundred dollars to the one candidate who is arguing for a monetary revolution, instead of simply watching that money rapidly crumble in value.

As Exhibit A, consider Peter Schiff, a financial adviser and sound-money advocate whose Connecticut firm, Euro Pacific Capital, specializes in investing clients' money in overseas assets to spare them what he argues will be a destructive decline in the value of the dollar followed by major deterioration in the U.S. economy. Schiff, who earlier this year published the investment guide "Crash Proof," recently sent out a "call to action" e-mail to the 60,000 people in his database urging them to send the $2,300 maximum-allowed contribution to Paul's campaign, describing this as one of the most productive uses for their rapidly fading U.S. dollars.

"If you are fortunate enough to be one of my clients, writing a $2,300 check should not be a problem. As I have likely made you tons of money over the years, here is an opportunity to donate some of it to a worthy cause. We have made our money by betting against the U.S and betting against the dollar. Giving $2,300 of our winnings to Ron Paul gives us the opportunity to bet ON America for a change. And it's a bet none of us can afford to lose, and the best part about it is that if we all make this bet together we can't lose," Schiff wrote in the e-mail. "My penchant for foreign investments has from time to time caused some of my critics to label me unpatriotic. While such attacks are clearly out of line, using some of our foreign profits to secure the election of Ron Paul goes a long way toward defusing such allegations. If you are not a client and you think $2,300 is a lot of money, it's not. In fact, if Ron Paul is not our next President, such a sum will be practically worthless by the end of the term of whoever is. So what do you have to lose? Just write the check and hope for the best."

In an interview today, Schiff said he expects that the federal raid on the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Code had added more weight to his argument for giving to the Paul campaign. "The federal government is debasing the currency and then it comes in and punishes people who are doing something to protect themselves," he said. "The fact that these guys would come in and raid this organization shows how much they've got to fear from this. If more and more people start shunning the currency, it takes away from their power."

Norfed, which is based in Evansville, Ind., says that in the last decade it has put into circulation more than $20 million in "Liberty Dollars," metal medallions and paper certificates that it says are backed by silver and gold stored in Idaho. The group's founder and director, Bernard von NotHaus, says that federal agents seized more than 50,000 copper "Ron Paul Dollars" that the group was selling for $1, in addition to smaller amounts of silver Ron Paul Dollars that sold for $20, gold ones that went for $1,000 and platinum ones that went for $2,000. Agents also raided the Idaho minting company that makes the organization's medallions, seizing the huge pallets of silver and gold stored there, von NotHaus said.

The FBI and U.S. Attorney's office in western North Carolina, which is handling the case, have declined to comment on the raids, but an affidavit filed in Asheville earlier this month describes a two-year long undercover investigation of the group, based partly on evidence obtained by an informant who posed as someone wanting to become a regional associate for the group. The affidavit states the group is being investigated for federal violations including "uttering coins of gold, silver or other metal" and "making of possessing likenesses of coins." "The goal of Norfed is to undermine the United States goverment's financial systems by the issuance of a non-governmental competing currency," the affidavit states.

This argument met with ridicule over the weekend from the prolific on-line network of Ron Paul supporters and sound money advocates, some of whom sarcastically predicted that the feds would next be going after Disneyworld for selling "Disney Dollars" for use inside the amusement park. "Here is a Mickey Mouse coin issued by that criminal, separatist organization, the Walt Disney Corporation. Did someone fail Common Sense 101?" wrote one commenter on the Post's Web site, offering a link to an image of the offending Mickey dubloon. Wrote another, "With commemorative coins advertised in every Sunday newspaper, and given the Donald Duck silver coins sold at Disney Land, this is an obvious attack on Ron Paul, a legitimate Presidential candidate, by the Federal Government. I am going to respond by going to Ron Paul's web site, easily found with Google, and giving $100 today."

Lawrence White, an economics professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said Liberty Dollar supporters had a point in charging overreaction on the part of the federal government. The question to be asked of Liberty Dollars, he said, is whether they make any sense for customers to buy -- while the certificates may offer a hedge for those convinced that the dollar will go in the tank, they come with the obvious downside that it is difficult to find others willing to accept the Liberty Dollars as a legal tender (though not in Berryville, Ark., where, according to the chamber of commerce, about half of the town's 80 merchants accept Liberty Dollars.)But that choice should be up to Americans to make, White said. "Unless they think people are being defrauded, it seems absurd to me," he said of the raid."The public ought to have a choice. Thank goodness we have an alternative to the post office."

A spokesman for the U.S. Mint responded to questions today by pointing reporters to the "consumer alerts" portion of its Web site, which carries warnings against using Liberty Dollars alongside warnings against mistaking as legitimate currency coins including: "Silver surfer" quarters created to help market the Fox movie "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer"; a "Freedom Tower Silver Dollar" originating from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; and an "Elvis Presley 25th Anniversary Tennessee State Quarter Tribute."

A Paul campaign spokesman, Jesse Benton, today reiterated that the campaign has no connection with the Ron Paul Dollars (though supporters have taken pictures of grinning Paul next to the coins.) He said the campaign is seeing an "uptick" in Web site visits and contributions following reports of the raid. The real test of the campaign's fundraising strength, though, will come next month, when supporters are organizing another one-day fundraising "bomb" timed with the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

Von NotHaus is doing his part, urging on his Web site (which he says has seen a huge spike in traffic) that supporters respond to the raid by contributing to Paul, as well as urging them to sign up as part of a class-action lawsuit against the federal government over the coin seizures. He is biding his time at his home in Miami, expecting to be arrested and indicted sometime in the near future. In fact, he said today that he is kind of hoping that the government makes its move sooner than later, so eager is he to make a stand on the part of sound money theories.

"I'm sure I'm going to be arrested, and I'd be disappointed if I'm not," he said. "I want to get going. I think it's going to be exciting."

--Alec MacGillis

[Sasha]

Wow, Disney Bones, and they're actually,... bones, in fact they are faced with a skull and crossbones.  Hmm, I might just ignor that if I didn't know that Disney (ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, 10 TV and 72 radio stations, and that's not an exclusive list - revenues of $34.3 billion in 2006) was one of the mass media controllers.

So, the Feds go grabbing the real money and leave us all with the choice between the inflation plagued Fed currency or Micky's NWO bones?  I guess the thieves know where the real goodies are, its their job and all.

[Dig]

Bernard Von Nothaus on Kudlow and Company

6 min - Nov 21, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGloitVVCvA

[Dig]

Ron Paul replies to question about Liberty Dollar raid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhWRDP8v9ss

[Femacamper]

Here is Barbera Schum's response to the Liberty dollar raid:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-1L46yJW6Y

[Dig]

Quick! Hide Your Ron Paul Dollars

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWNCMQFbvKw

Secret Service and FBI agents raided the makers of Ron Paul silver dollars, Liberty Dollar of Evansville, Ind., early Thursday in a move likely aimed at stamping out an illegal currency.

The company started selling precious-metal coins stamped with an image of Paul earlier this year, with the first one made of silver available in July. Part of the marketing for the coins involved a promise that part of the sale price would be donated to the Paul campaign.

But if the raid results in the conviction of anyone involved, it is possible that the Paul campaign may have to return a cash donation made by Liberty Dollar.

The silver coins, which weigh one troy ounce, were sold for $25 each, with $5 being promised to help fund Paul's presidential bid. The gimmick fit in well with Paul's campaign promise to bring back the gold standard of monetary policy in which precious metals would back paper dollars.

So far, Liberty Dollar has donated $2,300 to the Paul campaign, a fact confirmed by both Paul's office and Bernard von NotHaus, who runs Liberty Dollar.

As a result of the raid, prices for the silver coins have skyrocketed, with Ron Paul silver dollars, which were available from Liberty Dollar at $25 on Wednesday, selling for $220 on eBay
http://www.thestreet.com/s/raid-on-ron-paul-dollar-maker/markets/marketfeatures/10390631.html?puc=googlefi

[Dig]

Ron Paul, liberty dollars seized, CSPAN open phones

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNtiP0bzy1A

[Femacamper]

Notice how quickly he cut him off after he mentioned that he was a Ron Paul supporter. Shill.

[websuspect]

Im convinced there using double think to control us.

If the government was seizing control of private assets don't you think ABC and NBC would be reporting on it?

[Dig]

Im convinced there using double think to control us.

If the government was seizing control of private assets don't you think ABC and NBC would be reporting on it?

Disney and General Electric?

Why would they be reporting on a secret plan that they set up?