August 25, 2007
August 24, 2007
Sleightful
Once again, our servant federal Government has employed an
indirect, ingenious, and most cunning means to achieve a
nefarious end.
Whether the end is a justification for an immoral war against
Iraq
or a war against the Right to Petition and accountability,
it makes no difference to the Government – the ends justify
the means.
Doubtless, from the White House to the Government’s lawyers
and tax collectors, we have a clever bunch of tyrants
treading on us.
Here’s a clue to the latest factual chapter in the continuing
epic tale about WTP and the Right to Petition, which we
present to you below:
"WMD"
is to the war against Iraq
as WTP’s "Blue Folder" is
to the war against the Right to Petition
The Facts
It’s no state secret that the Government does not like what
Bob Schulz and the We The People organization have been
doing to raise awareness about the Rights of the People and
the Obligations of the Government as guaranteed by the First
Amendment’s Petition Clause: “Congress shall make no law
abridging the Right of the People to Petition the Government
for Redress of Grievances.”
The Government does not want the People to know that if the
People have evidence that Government is violating any
provision of the Constitution, the People not only have the
Right to Petition the Government for a Redress (remedy) of
the constitutional tort, but the Government is obligated to
respond, and the People have the Right to withdraw their
allegiance to and support from the Government if the
Government refuses to respond to the Petitions for Redress.
Government abhors accountability as much as nature abhors a
vacuum.
So, the Government has apparently been getting nervous with
each new WTP inspired educational program and civic action
relating to the Right To Petition, whether it’s newspaper
ads, regional and national conferences, web casts, freedom
drives, YouTube and Google streaming video clips, the movie
“America: Freedom to Fascism”, lawsuits, “V” for Vendetta
silent vigils, radio interviews, hunger fasts or our Web
site articles or messages that go out to our large email
list.
The word is getting around. Case in point, look what Michael
Van Deelen achieved last week in the United States Court of
Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
Click here to read the Court’s decision.
Thank you Mr. Van Deelen; the wonderful constitutional
principles soundly reaffirmed in your case will soon help us
in our efforts to get the Supreme Court to hear our landmark
Right to Petition case.
Not only does the Government not want the People to know the
full contours of the meaning of the words of the
“Accountability Clause” of the First Amendment for fear it
may radically restore the original and intended balance of
power between the People and the Government, the Government
will do most anything, lawful or not, to keep this truth
from the People.
Case in point: Let's examine more closely the Government’s
actions in the civil "6700" injunction case it filed against
Bob Schulz and the WTP corporations several months ago.
In its complaint, an
IRS Agent
who goes by the name of "David Gordon" claimed that as a
consequence of WTP’s “Operation Stop Withholding” the IRS
had to spend $1,600 to prepare a “substitute for return” for
each of 997 people for each of three years
(i.e., over $4,700,000).
In other words, Gordon led the Court to believe that as part
of Operation Stop Withholding, 997 workers had submitted the
WTP withholding forms to their companies, the companies
stopped withholding and the workers kept the money from the
IRS. Worse yet, Gordon led the Court to believe that “while WTP
sometimes gave the material away for free, WTP normally
received $20 for each Blue Folder it distributed.”
In fact, aside from this self-serving claim, the Government
failed to produce any evidence for the Court of any company
who stopped withholding after receiving any of the material
from WTP’s Operation Stop Withholding.
What was before the Court however, was evidence that
the 997 “non-filers” Gordon referred to came from the list
of 1400 named plaintiffs in the Right to Petition lawsuit,
each of whom had courageously submitted an affidavit to the
DC Court stating that they had stopped filing tax returns
because the Government had not responded to their Petitions
for Redress of Grievances relating to the Iraq Resolution,
the Federal Reserve, the USA Patriot Act and the direct
un-apportioned tax on labor.
In other words, Gordon has filed Substitute Returns in
direct retaliation against the
RTP
Plaintiffs, even while the litigation is still continuing
and even though the constitutional question of whether those
individual Plaintiffs had a Right to stop filing and paying
remains an unsettled question of law. In its pleadings WTP even pointed out for the Court that
nowhere has the
IRS actually been delegated any legal authority to create
"substitute returns" for Form 1040.
Also before the Court was evidence that WTP distributed
thousands of copies of the Operation Stop Withholding Blue
Folders for free and put the entire contents of the
Blue Folder on the website for free downloading,
while receiving a nominal donation of $20 from a relative
handful of people over the last four and a half years who,
for whatever reason could not download the material from the
website.
The $20 was meant to cover the cost of the folder, paper,
copying and mailing by Priority Mail. If WTP covered its
cost with the $20 it was only because the person was a
volunteer who made the 15 mile trip to Staples to buy the
supplies and who stood at our copy machine to copy the more
than 100 pages of documents, who organized and
packaged up the document, created mailing labels and who
made the trip to the post office to mail the package. Of
course, even this does not even begin to address overhead
costs such as electricity, copier rental, etc.
On
August 9, 2007 the Court issued a Decision and Order
granting Summary Judgment against WTP and issuing an
injunction prohibiting the "offensive" Speech.
Here’s the rub. Even though the "Blue Folder" is the sole
document at the heart of the Government's 6700 lawsuit, the
Court's Decision and Order does not mention, and is not
restricted to distribution of the Blue Folder or its
content. In fact, the language is so broad and vague
so as to reach virtually everything WTP does – our very
reason for being-- especially our programs and activities
relating to the natural Right to Petition government to
Redress the Peoples' Grievances.
Under the terms of the Order the DOJ would be filing a motion
with this judge to hold us in contempt of court every time
we spoke publicly about the Right to Petition, every time we
publicly raised our “No Answers, No Taxes” banner, every
time we publicly repeated the wonderful quotes from the
historical record about the privilege of giving and
withholding our money to intercede in Petitioning for
Redress of Grievances and for the restoration of our Rights,
historically articulated in the Magna Carta and the Journals
of the Continental Congress to the Declaration of
Independence and Bill of Rights and beyond.
Under the terms of this constitutionally impermissible Order,
WTP is required to turn over to the
IRS the
name, address, phone number and social security number of
any and all people who have obtained any of our educational
materials, including the record of the Citizens’ Truth in
Taxation Hearing, and so forth.
Doubtless, the Government has used this lawsuit against the
Blue Folder as a means to silence Bob, destroy WTP and to
shut down the Right to Petition process, by chilling people
of ordinary firmness from continuing to engage in these
constitutionally protected activities.
For instance, the Government would love nothing better than
for WTP to be unable to take the
RTP case
through to the Supreme Court for lack of funding. The
Government would love nothing better than for WTP to remove
most of the highly credible legal and historical research
housed on its website. And most of all, the Government would
love to frighten away those who have stood together in the
defense of Liberty under the auspices of our organization
and the thousands and thousands that have supported our
cause.
The
Government knows (as Jefferson knew) that, "Most People
prefer the calm seas of despotism to the boisterous sea of
Liberty, where there is always a wave crashing," and are
inclined to fear the government. But Jefferson also knew
that, "When the People fear the government you have tyranny,
but when the government fears the People you have Liberty."
We have filed a motion for a modification of the Order and we
will be appealing the final decision to the US Court of
Appeals in
Manhattan.
Links to all the "6700" case documents are now provided on
the
6700 Lawsuit Documents web page. We strongly
encourage everyone to read the most recent documents and
Court decisions and
post your comments here. As these may be
published, it is recommended that you use your spell and
grammar check tool.
Remember, despite the Government's unlawful attacks and
denial of justice to date, we are almost to the steps of the
Supreme Court.
An event of untold historical significance is almost upon
us: We are about to learn either, 1) that the People are
indeed the true Sovereigns and the First Amendment Petition
clause enables each of us to exercise such Right peacefully,
or 2) that our Government has failed us in its very
raison d'etre -- the servant created by us, to protect
us and secure our individual, unalienable Rights.
Either way, the People of this nation will soon have some
very important decisions to make.
History is made by those who show up and make it happen.
Please help us continue this epic fight to a successful
conclusion by considering a
donation. If we have no funds, the battle cannot be fought.
To make a tax-deductible donation to the WTP Foundation, please click here:
Donation. You can make a
one-time or recurring donation and can also establish the
dates the secure transactions are run each month.
Update
Related Links
Access all
the
6700 Lawsuit Filings and Court Orders.
Please
post your comments here.
Read the new Tenth Circuit decision
prohibiting retaliation for exercising the Right to
Petition.
Please consider a
Donation.
Please remember:
The Landmark Right-To-Petition
Lawsuit
and
Operations of
the WTP Foundation
are Funded
Solely By Your
Generous Support.
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