By: Elissa Meininger September 24, 2009 © 2009 -
NewsWithViews.com“….all men are created equal…. endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” -Declaration of Independence
“Where-ever law ends, tyranny begins…” -John Locke
For the first time in my life, I hear perfectly rational people, those who tend not to speak in emotional terms, tell me that they fear for the future of our country. Similarly, I hear these same people say they are terrified about being forced to be vaccinated with the swine flu vaccine. While I share these sentiments, it is my nature to dig around until I can find out the reason why so many of us feel like this today.
In my research, I came across Jonathan Emord’s latest book,
The Rise of Tyranny – How Federal Agencies Abuse Power and Pose Risks to Your Life and Liberty. It is, by far, the most important book I’ve read in a decade about the inner workings of our government and why our country is in such peril today.
For those who do not know who he is, Emord is a prominent Washington attorney, a specialist in constitutional and administrative law, who has won an astounding number of cases against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
He is a noted First Amendment expert whose passion for the writings and principles of true liberty is profound. If you are of like mind, I urge you to
visit his website. It is chock full of information you will like.
Emord is a familiar name to those of us in the Health Freedom Movement who believe vitamins and other dietary supplements should not only be readily available, but should also include on their labels and promotional material detailed information about why they are good for us. It may surprise you, but it is legal for a manufacturer to include truthful information, backed by science, on the label or in the labeling or advertising for a product. The FDA has systematically refused to allow this information to be available to the public. The penalty for providing the information includes removal of the product from the market, prosecution and possible jail time.
Every American should be alarmed at this FDA censorship. This same ban on useful information includes a ban on information about all kinds of dietary supplement products that have scientific as well as longstanding clinical and published public record evidence to back up the fact that they can prevent us from succumbing to swine flu. Or, at the very least, these products could make our bout with the infection a mild one. In light of the major risks of vaccines, especially the largely untested swine flu vaccine we are now facing, the fact that these other dietary supplement choices are basically free of any side effects, makes this banning of information even more outrageous.
Since dietary supplements are regulated as foods, because that’s what they are, the prospect of seeing a product as harmless as prunes removed from the market over a labeling dispute is an example of how ridiculous this problem is. If some company that sells prunes puts a label claim on the package that says eating them will cure constipation, that would be classified as a claim for an unapproved drug by FDA standards. A substance is defined as a drug based on its intended use, not its physiological effect on the body. Consequently, any substance that it is intended to be used to “diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent disease in man or other animals” is a drug.
Not being allowed to tell the public what dietary supplements can do to actually cure or prevent disease, is, in Emord’s legal arguments, unconstitutional and in conflict with the principle of free speech, which is protected under the First Amendment. That the FDA has actually argued in Federal Court that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to it, should be warning enough to show that the FDA is out of control. The agency also has a habit of ignoring Federal Court rulings against it regarding the issue of free speech, something Emord describes in detail in his book. While my main focus is on how the FDA has run afoul of the framers’ intent, be aware other agencies such as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration are also discussed.
What makes
Rise of Tyranny such an important book is that it explains, blow by blow, how an array of 184 federal agencies were unconstitutionally created and how their creation shoved aside the constitutionally- defined principle of “balance of power” which was the genius of how our government originally worked.
Long forgotten by many people in government and on main street is why the Constitution was crafted to create three separate and limited sources of power to rule in the first place. The idea was to weaken the authority of government so that there would be no all-powerful government yoke upon the free and independent citizens of this once free country. By dividing the power this would ensure that government power did not fall into the hands of one person or one group of people against the best interests of the citizens at large.
Emord reminds us that during the Great Depression, under the leadership of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a law was passed called the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. The purpose of this law was to create federal agencies that would have the power to make laws, execute laws, and to judge law violations. This was unconstitutional at its core because it was designed to transfer the power of Congress and the courts to these agencies.
After the Supreme Court ruled that this new law was unconstitutional, FDR was so committed to getting his way, he sent Congress another bill called the Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 which was to add one justice to the Supreme Court for each of seven members who then were older than age 70 and six months. This bill was aimed at intimidating the six judges who ruled against his New Deal programs. It never passed but did its job well. Several of the justices changed their opinion.
This strategy, called “court packing”, preceded a switch in constitutional doctrine that gave a green light to broad delegations of governing power to the administrative agencies. There has not be a single Supreme Court ruling since then holding a delegation of governing power from Congress to an administrative agency unconstitutional.. Also, since 1938, regulatory agencies have routinely run roughshod over the rights and property of American citizens.
Another revelation in
Rise of Tyranny is the concept of “rent seeking”. Rent seeking is an economic term to describe when an individual, corporation or other entity seeks to gain income, not from honest competition, but from orchestrating burdensome regulations or other government decisions to restrain competition. In other words, industries “capture” the very agencies set up to regulate them. When the relationship is fully operational, the industry itself provides the regulatory language for rulemaking designed to suppress if not totally destroy unwanted competition. The carrot offered the bureaucrat is a lucrative job in the industry after the bureaucrat leaves the agency or other benefits. Protecting and serving the public is not part of the equation.
The nonsensical excuses the FDA, in particular, uses to justify convoluted logic regarding its various rulings, is a demonstration of just how far that agency will go to help its “client.” Yes, FDA officials refer to the pharmaceutical industry as FDA’s “client”. Emord provides extensive details on how the pharmaceutical industry has gained control of not just the FDA but also medical schools, medical research, prescription decisions by doctors, as well as actions by members of Congress and even the President.
As the FDA and other agencies protect the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry, what we have seen for decades are gunpoint raids in doctors’ offices for nothing more than disputes over use of vitamins in patient care, banning and burning of books and scientific material discussing how to treat scary diseases such as cancer, and jailing people with ideas that challenge the status quo of the current government-endorsed medical system.
An astonishing description of the problem provided in the book pretty well covers the situation:
The Commissioner of FDA can promulgate any rule, can overrule any judgment of agency medical reviewers, can order the prosecution of any regulatee, and can approve for marketing any drug, regardless of the scientific evidence that may exist against the drug’s safety or efficacy.
The Congress of the United States has vested in one person the enormous power to regulate everything we consume and use for our sustenance and health—all food, drugs, cosmetics, biologics, medical devices, and dietary supplements.
There is little real check on the exercise of the FDA Commissioner’s discretion, not from the Courts, not from the Congress, and not from the President. The union of legislative and executive powers within FDA has yielded corruption, as the founders predicted, in the form of industry favoritism.
One first class example of this wielding of arbitrary power happened this past July regarding the final ruling on the safety of dental mercury fillings. For people who suffer an array of illness from mercury poisoning from these fillings, it has been a long, uphill battle (Federal lawsuits, two FDA hearings and several Congressional hearings) in an attempt to force the FDA to either ban these dangerous fillings outright or post strong warnings for their limited use. For several years, the FDA’s website had posted a message regarding the possible risks to children and unborn children of pregnant women for neurological damage so the final, court-ordered ruling was expected to clarify and amplify what the agency had already posted.
Much to the horror of dental mercury poisoning victims, when forced by the Federal Court to publish a final ruling, the FDA removed the cautionary information from its website and posted its final ruling that basically blessed mercury fillings as safe and that only those who have an “allergy” to mercury need worry. “Allergy” isn’t the word I would use unless it means getting ghastly and chronically ill from a highly-toxic substance that, by law, is taken to special toxic dumpsites when it is removed from people’s teeth. For a complete rundown of what dental mercury poisoning victims suffer, check out the article Carolyn Dean, MD ND, and I wrote about called Lies Your Dentist is Forced to Tell You
available here:
While a crushing blow to the anti-amalgam movement, the implications of this outrageous ruling are way more far reaching than just to victims of the dental industry. The FDA is also stonewalling the dangers of mercury contained in vaccinations. The Autism catastrophe is yet another cesspool of deceit committed by several government agencies. For more information on this issue,
read Carolyn’s and my article called Autism Can Be Treated.
With a million and a half kids suffering from Autism, not to mention an array of other neurological disorders in epidemic proportions, the potential to deliver even more misery with the swine flu shot is enormous. The removal of mercury from compulsory childhood vaccines was a result of public pressure based on concerns over vaccine safety. Now these same parents with fragile children are facing yet another government edict forcing an even greater risk of damage if the swine flu vaccine should become mandatory. Flu shots are still loaded with mercury. Any rational person concerned with public health would be asking the question, “How many new cases of Autism and other neurological damage are there going to be, if children and people of all ages are mandated to take it?”
Jonathan Emord’s explanation that the Commissioner of the FDA rules the agency as a tyrant and without regard to its own scientists’ input rings true here. At the last FDA hearing on the safety of mercury fillings, even the FDA-paid scientific advisory panel could not vote to support mercury filling safety. So, in the grand tradition of protecting the drug industry, to get around this unfortunate roadblock, a new FDA commissioner was appointed who had served for many years as a $250,000-a-year board member of a large amalgam manufacturing company. As this predictable drama played out, the new Commissioner waited until the last minute to pretend to recuse herself just before the final ruling was issued, so the final ruling could be announced by her underling who is now taking the heat from thousands of outraged mercury filling victims.
Fortunately, the final chapter of Emord’s book is titled, The Way Back to Liberty. In it, he proposes eight remedies to restore the Constitution to its rightful place in defense of the rule of law our Founding Fathers created. The question is do we have the courage to stand up to perhaps the mightiest industry on earth, the pharmaceutical industry, as our Founding Fathers stood up to the power of government-protected monopolies like the tea-trading East India Company? Or, are we content to be turned back into subjects of a global empire ruling us from afar?
If you can muster your desire for freedom, there are three bills already introduced in Congress you can read and ask your Congressman to co-sponsor right now, that Jonathan Emord crafted to help restore our country to its founding roots.
More Information:
1 -
H.R. 3395: Health Freedom Act2 -
H.R. 3396: Congressional Responsibility and Accountability Act3 -
H.R. 3394: Freedom of Health Speech Act© 2009 - Elissa Meininger - All Rights Reserved
Elissa Meininger became a noted health policy historian as well as a political activist after almost dying from years of mercury poisoning caused by mercury leaching from the "silver" dental amalgam fillings in her teeth. Bedridden and unable to carry on a coherent conversation, (and unable to obtain a diagnosis from any of the MDs she had consulted), she turned to a traditional naturopath who had no difficulty recognizing and explaining the source of the large array of chronic problems from which she had suffered most of her life. This diagnosis saved her life, but even today, such consultation remains illegal in many states.
Committed to reforming the medical system, Elissa embarked over 20 years ago on an array of projects geared to bringing enlightened medical treatment to the American people, including providing prepared statements for various U.S. Congressional and White House Commission hearings on health freedom legislation and policy, and testifying numerous times before the Oklahoma state legislature.
She is the former Vice President of Friends of Freedom International and co-columnist, with
Carolyn Dean, MD/ND, of many articles posted on the NewsWithViews.com.
Currently, Elissa's health freedom political commentary can be heard on the natural health radio show SuperHealth, broadcast twice weekly on FoxSportsRadio 1340 AM in Oklahoma City and on the internet.
E-Mail:
em-mail@cox.net
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